Good Design for a healthy place

GOOD DESIGN FOR A BETTER PLACE

 can design rejuvenate the health sector by modernizing the brown field hospital projects

In the changing care delivery models and an industry-wide push for single-bed patient rooms, building projects are inevitable for most healthcare systems and hospitals. But finding the best value in renovations or expansion versus greenfield construction isn’t always as cut and dry .

New construction include an aging existing infrastructure that can’t support today’s systems and technology, a lack of land on the existing site and the challenges of phase wise development in an operationally function hospital.

In a city like Mumbai where almost 70% of the established healthcare provider brands are housed in buildings which are more than 40 years old ,the improvements and up gradation of medical campus is inevitable.

 Interestingly it is noted that the push for private rooms is not in sync with the infrastructure at an existing facility to support the new model.

Additionally, the technology expected from patients—including temperature and lighting controls, real-time conferencing with physicians, etc.—may also not be supported by the current building.

The expansion of an existing hospital campus while initially triggered by shortage of clinical spaces , gives the designers an opportunity to achieve far more than is required and to better position the healthcare for the long term by providing improved facilities and a broader range of programs in an accessible, welcoming, patient-friendly environment.

The key question is - Can design tackle the really big problems faced by the healthcare facilities ?

The pre design assessment study methods from the creative sector with those working in the field of healthcare can be the step one. Design thinking and design research are an essential part of this process to understand and move towards modernizing the existing healthcare facility .

This crucial step called ‘creative care ‘ is a time consuming arduous task of back and forth between user group and designers.

The guiding ethos of ‘creative care before design ‘ is that the users should always remain central.

The new Annexe care building for BCH, Mumbai was designed as per NABH and CRZ norms and has completed Design Development.

 It includes 66 inpatient beds , 22 acute care beds and 5  Emergency beds. Within its surgical services area on the 2nd floor, two new OR standardized for flexibility of use have been integrated in the design. The ICU and MICU beds are designed on the third and fourth floor .The project includes a Patient focused chemotherapy department with 13 chemo bays on the fifth floor . The fifth floor also houses the 2 beds to support the Endoscopy department procedure rooms .On the refuge floor is the Dialysis department . The inpatient floors are designed from 7th to 11th level with the view to the vast expanse of the Arabian sea. Support services include staff lounge ,on call doctors room, an upgraded energy centre along with storage space.

The key for the design exercise to be successfully accomplished is the designers  role to start conversations with healthcare professionals, patients and hospitals, to really adopt the creative care process.

The creative care design process helps healthcare’s metamorphosis from  "a closed system" to an open system in which patients have more power.

Open design, is all about sharing your knowledge of design with others to pave way for similar design paradigms to be solved  .

BCH_Mumbai Master plan scheme showing Phase wise development proposed for the upgrading the existing hospital facility

Architectural Rendering of the proposed master plan re development of the hospital campus