Amid COVID-19, everyone is sitting home but hospitals are working around the clock to save lives of positive cases ad those with other ailments. With a grim outlook, there is an anticipation of coronavirus positive cases rising in the months to come. This is means that hospitals have to prepare for the extra patients who are likely to fill their current beds. The best thing for hospitals to do right now is to work with architects to remodel their current spaces.
Luckily, it is possible to find architects with experience designing for infection control. These have the experience and expertise to design spaces in specialty centers and hospitals that mitigate and curb the spread of the infection. Architecture design and planning don’t fix shortages in equipment but avails the necessary space. Read on to discover how architects are helping medical facilities handle patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Converting available treatment spaces
Hospitals built 10 to 15 years back need a design that offers better flexibility. Dealing with the coronavirus outbreak requires having enough beds. There is a need to have space or infrastructure not designed for inpatient beds but appropriate during a crisis. Many hospital designs include preparation and recovery areas for patients requiring surgery. This should have bays or rooms separated by thin curtains. Coronavirus is highly contagious and needs private rooms with intensive care and ventilation.
A reputable online architecture design and planning firm is ideal for flexible hospital design. This should allow converting bays into rooms handling respiratory infection treatment. A design with enclosed private rooms is ideal when having the appropriate budget and space. However, a post-recovery unit with necessary gases and emergency power for respiratory patients is necessary. A professional design team has the experience and expertise to convert any hospital space into an emergency unit to handle coronavirus.
Pop-up facilities
Building pop-up triage tents is a good choice for some hospitals. Professional architects are helping to build tents in the hospital outdoors. These triage areas are for checking for positive cases including those who need admission or can go home. The hospital should have enough space for setting up the tent. This should support all plumbing and electrical needs of the project to allow adapting the space to match the current needs.
The triage tent for preliminary vetting of patients can be built infront of the emergency center or under the hospital overpass. Healthcare workers usually determine people to admit to the emergency unit depending on how sick they are. During the pandemic, the focus is on keeping patients out of the emergency unit in the best way possible. Building the vetting tent nearby allows distinguishing between other patients and those with COVID-19 symptoms.
Rethinking surfaces
Another way for hospitals to manage the coronavirus pandemic is to get professional architects to strategize on treated surfaces. This requires the use of smart materials that limit patients and hospital staff from getting into contact with the coronavirus. Keep in mind that this virus stays on surfaces for quite some time. The architects assist choose floor materials less likely to crack or easily washed down. Additionally, the ideal material doesn’t react easily with sanitizers and disinfectants that sit on the surfaces for some minutes to work.
Limiting frequently touched surfaces by doctors, nurses, patients, and caregivers in a hospital setting is the best way to curb the spread of coronavirus. The architects can recommend touchless technology to limit tasks done by hand. Use of remote control for lights and limiting touching monitor screens and door handles limits contracting the virus.
Steps medical facilities are handling the COVID-19 pandemic
Hospitals are now working 24/7 to deal with the pandemic with internal rapid response groups to handle the patient flow. Careful evaluation and categorizing of patients allows focusing on caseloads. Patients who need emergency attention including heart surgery and C-sections need higher priority on admission.
Other elective surgeries including joint replacements have lower priority. Apart from patients who need emergency attention and have coronavirus positive signs, cancer surgeries, and patients who need organ transplants also need attention as soon as possible.
Other strategies for hospitals to handle the pandemic include:
- Placing mandatory procedures for peedy discharge of patients who feel better
- Insurers cooperating any time to approve patient discharge
- Performing urgent and elective surgeries including on weekends
- Limiting boarding patients in emergency departments
Undertaking these changes with assistance from professional architects allows freeing up current bed capacity. This allows handling the increasing number of COVID-19 cases. The measures above allow converting parts of the regular hospital environment into intensive care units. The availability of space to handle more patients requires more staff and reassigning existing staff to handle the pandemic.
Conclusion
With medical personnel at the forefront of the fight to curb the coronavirus outbreak all-over the world, hospitals are getting overwhelmed. Professional architects are readily available online to create new designs to remodel the current hospital setting to save as many lives as possible.
