Hospital architecture design & planning-

Introduction-

The patient who comes to the hospital is stressed, worried and scared; the purpose of the hospital is to make the patient happy and comfortable. Healthy hospital architecture is not able to keep the only patient happy but also all the doctors, nurses and other staff. Hospital Architects is not the same as a residence they consider many technical aspects and large requirement and ensure that the spaces are properly connected useful and infection-free. Florence nightingale was the first lady who understands the basic principle that was Sanitation, infection control and control environment, the theory that was the evidence-based design that is used in the current scenario. Now in the designing phase of the architecture plan of hospital architects ensure that building spaces are easy to clean and infection-free and patients feel safe and give the best view from the ward. To control infection and manpower we don’t have to give more than three entrances the first one is the main entrance which people generally use, the second one is emergency and the third is for services.

How to design a better hospital-

Here we are going to explain step by step hospital design and planning.

1-Finalize area requirement-

Before start designing architecture planning of a hospital, you have to decide what services are you are going to provide like O.P.D., Diagnostics, and what services you are going to outsource like biomedical waste management, ct MRI, Cafeteria; on behalf of that built-up area required to plan a hospital vary between 600-1000sqft per bed. If you need a simple hospital you need a 600sqft built-up area per bed but you increase the requirement it will go up to 1000 sqft per bed. The mid-range and smooth running hospital required 800sqft per bed built-up area.

2-Selection of the site-

The three architectural aspects should be considered while selecting the site hospital building.

I)         FSI-

Its value varies 1.5-2 by this we can decide covered area or built-up area of that site by multiplying FSI into plot size. Larger FSI the number better because we can have more construction area.

II)        Setback-

Set back is the space between the boundary wall and the building. Setback decided by regulating authority it should be sufficient that fire brigade vehicle easily moves from there it’s about 6m-7m in most of the cases. This also helps to decide whether the plot is worth purchasing or not, it should not be too linear otherwise it will not good for hospital design architecture.

III)       Coverage-

It’s about 50% of the plot area depends on regulating authority.

Note-

Before starting designing ensure that Land use permission is hospital or commercial of land if not contact regulating authority to change land use.

3-Building selection-

• In the case of a conversion project, these things are kept in mind.
• The floor height should be 3.5-4m and good lavish spaces for better operations In OT.
• Ramp and other disabled friend features.
• The entrance and exit should be properly placed.

• Fire safety aspect-

Enough space in the corridor and around the building

Stair-case width.

• Column and beam arrangement should be maximum distance for better planning

Check these points to ensure that their design satisfies the people living and functioning in the space they design.

4-Hospital specific design-

The building should follow NBC and NABH, and local bylaws for planning Aerb guidelines for Xray design.

Parking facility-

If your floor area is up to 3000sqft then 1car 1bike parking is required per 50sqm of covered area.

If your floor area is more than 3000 sqft then1 car and 1 bike parking are required per 75sqm of covered area.

Fire safety measures-

Hospitals can easily catch fire due to oxygen running pipeline chemicals and equipment. Many hospital inpatients are disabled so maximum precaution should be followed in hospital architecture design & planning

The fire safety point is mentioned below.

• Space around the building for fire brigade vehicle movement.
• Escape route display.
• Door width in critical areas.
• Staircase and corridor width.
• Ramp width.
• Fire hydrant and sprinkler system

Things that are considered while designing an ideal hospital—

• The toilet should be disabled friendly and should have grab bars and have other disabled-friendly features always should be open outside and a minimum of 900 mm wide.
• The width of the staircase should be 2000mm and the corridor should be 2400 mm wide for safety in case of fire for passing stretchers and wheelchairs.
• OT and CSSD should be in such type general people don’t cross or mix to maintain sterility and make space infection free and the path should be unidirectional. Path sequence to be Dirty corridor-Semi dirty corridor-clean corridor-sterilized zone, and should be unidirectional. And one more important thing the OT light should be shadowless.
• The view from the ward is beautiful scenery, greenery or something relaxing and also provides pathways inside the park outside. A good greenery view increases the recovery rate of the patient and doesn’t need to take sleeping pills in this case.
• The space for a bed should be 3m by 3m area so that the family can sit down on a couch or bed which one of them spend the night and provide a nurse station nearby location.
• Small nurses break room and staff lounge for hospital staff for planning hospital-related operations.
• Provide distraction like the aquarium or anything painting bright colour sofas mural.
• Hospitals should be Patient-centric and user-centric also so that we can provide a good environment for patients as well as hospital staff also.
• Floor height should be 3.5m-4m for better operations.
• The ramp should be enough width and slope should be 1:10-1:12.
• Staircase, life and corridor facility provide for better movement.
• Infection control measures should be followed during designing, like segregation of critical and non-critical areas, O.T. and CSSD zoning is needed to consider while planning.
• The sanitation station should provide at the required location. Hand wash in the consultation room and scrub station in OT.
• Patient and visitor-centric design.
• A waiting area, Prayer room should be provided.
• Movement should be unidirectional as if we are going to o.t.  first we go to dress then scrub station and then OT this sequence should not change otherwise the sequence of the dirty corridor- clean corridor and sterilize corridor will be change
• Grab bar should provide where required.
• Critical and non-critical areas properly segregated-CSSD is an important part of the hospital in which scalpel and instrument cleaning and sterling which is used in OT. Zoning is important as O.T. in CSSD Dirty, clean and sterile and material and staff movement also important.

Conclusion-

Hospital designing is important to field in the designing and construction field with the help of nabh and jci we can design a good patient and user-centric hospital role of architects in hospitals is to prevent infection and help patients heal faster. An Architect responsibility is to design hospitals so that the public may get health care spaces infection-free, patient and user-centric. We are India based healthcare designing consultants and have tested processes for infection free and functional hospital design. Cost and energy use can be deducted by our sustainable