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Efficiency and Cost - Effectiveness |
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An efficient hospital layout should : |
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Promote staff efficiency by minimizing distance of necessary travel between frequently used spaces
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Allow easy visual supervision of patients by limited staff
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Include all needed spaces, but no redundant ones. This requires careful pre-design programming.
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Provide an efficient logistics system, which might
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include elevators, pneumatic tubes, box conveyors,
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manual or automated cart, and gravity or pneumatic chutes, for the efficient handling of food and clean supplies and the removal of waste, recyclables and soiled material
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Cleanliness and Sanitation |
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Hospital must be easy to clean and maintain. This is facilitated by :
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Appropriate durable finishes for each functional space
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Careful detailing of such features as door frames, casework and finish transitions to avoid dirt - catching and hard to clean crevices and joints
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Adequate and appropriately located housekeeping spaces
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Special materials, finishes and details for spaces which are to be kept sterile such as integral cove base. The new antimicrobial surfaces might be considered for appropriate locations
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Incorporating O&M Practices that stress indoor environmental quality (IEQ)
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Accessibility |
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All areas both outside and inside should :
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Comply with the minimum requirements of any disability acts of government, local authorities, and any governing codes in the area.
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To be designed so as to be easy to use by the many patients with temporary or permanent handicaps
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Ensuring grades are flat enough to allow easy movement and sidewalks and corridors are wide enough for two wheelchairs to pass easily
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Ensuring entrance areas are designed to accommodate patients with slower adaptation rates to dark and light; marking glass walls and doors to make their presence obvious.
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Controlled Circulation |
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A hospital is a complex system of interrelated functions requiring constant movement of people and goods. Much of this circulation should be controlled.
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Outpatients visiting diagnostic and treatment areas should not travel through inpatient functional areas nor encounter severely ill inpatients
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Typical outpatient routes should be simple and clearly defined
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Visitors should have a simple and direct route to each patient nursing unit without penetrating other functional areas
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Patients and visitors should be separated from industrial/logistical areas or floors
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Outflow of trash, recyclables and soiled materials should be separated from movement of food and clean supplies and both should be separated from routes of patients and visitors
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Dedicated service elevators for deliveries, food and building maintenance services
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Security and Safety |
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In addition to the general safety concerns of all buildings, hospitals have several particular security concerns :
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Protection of hospital property and assets including drugs.
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Protection of patients including incapacitated patients and staff.
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Safe control of violent or unstable patients.
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Vulnerability to damage from terrorism because of proximity to high-vulnerability targets or because they may be highly visible public buildings with an important role in the public health system.
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