Importance of hospital infrastructure designing

As a recent concept which is popularised among the hospitals, is to strongly promote wellness as opposed to only treating diseases. For a better outcome of patient results which includes safety of the patient, the infrastructure design of the hospital plays a very important role. We find these days huge amount of money is spent on building new hospital structures for catering to the people for their wellness and treatment of the various diseases. The design of the hospital structure planned is once in life time and major changes cannot be implemented at a later point of time, so the thought process needs to be done at the initial time considering the future requirement with all the various different factors. The infrastructure design of the building should be attractive, functional and as well cater to the needs of the patient care.

In earlier days, importance was never given to facility designing which affected the functional systems within the hospital and as well the patient safety even though millions of money was poured into the construction of these facilities. The right components considered for the design and planning of the facility gives a very strong and positive impact and in return improves human performance and especially improves the safety of the employees, patients and their families. After a lot of research and reading through different articles, we have found out that there is a strong connection between the physical environment (Single bed or multiple beds) and patient (fewer adverse events and better quality in healthcare) and staff (less amount of stress, fatigue and high amount of deliverance in quality patient care). The hospital facility design should have adequate space for the patient to stay comfortably and also by giving adequate space for the attendars; equipments and other necessities kept at a standard location and providing adequate space for documentation and work areas reduces the stress levels for the clinicians which help them to deliver better at work.

To create a better environment in the facility, the overall responsibility should be taken by the team members, that is, the medical planner, engineers, architect, interior designer, site and landscape designer, as they are responsible for the overall design that will affect the patients, families and the employees in a positive way throughout the facility. The key points which could be minor also should be taken into account in the designing stage itself, such as the parking lot for the staff and visitors, main entry to the facility, emergency entry to the facility, common spaces in the facility, clinical areas, patient areas, etc are to be noted and considered while designing. All the areas in the hospital should be planned well catering to a large number of people of different categories with different sickness walking in and out of the hospital. The space provision and allocation at the right location for all the areas/departments as per the industry standards need to be followed such as the bed space planning, size of consultation and investigations rooms, size of operations theatres, etc. In the aspect of planning the design of the facility, the process flow for easy accessibility and understanding needs to be considered (entry point of the patient, allocation and positioning of the consultation rooms, and pharmacy, investigation rooms for laboratory and radiology, etc) so that, the process is maintained in both (clinical and non-clinical) without any confusions and reduces stress levels.

The environment created within the hospital should create positivity around the people who are entering with illness. Factors such as positive distractions as we can name it has a strong impact on the staff and patients, like greenery, worship areas, scenic views, paint colours on the walls, good lighting across all the common areas and as well within the rooms, waiting zones with all facilities for families to relax as they wait for the treatment process to end, reading zone, etc need to be considered for a better hospital stay for the patients and a better working place for the employees and clinicians.

The management team should try and consider the various tools and strategies available in making a better facility for the people who come there for cure from the various diseases.