Healthcare | Wednesday 8 March, 2017 12:33 pm |

The approach to planning and implementing a successful hospital construction project has changed greatly. Here are some tips for building a strong, modern healthcare facility:

DO:

Focus on Core Care Functions and Goals

Modern healthcare construction is all about focusing on the value, or functional aspects of every design element, instead of just its aesthetics. Design must blend seamlessly into construction to solve problems, support treatment functions and care efficiencies, and ensure positive experiences for everyone.

Go for Evidence-based Design

Medical researches and studies have gone a long way in helping healthcare design and construction evolve. Evidence-based design is the use of study and research-based principles to influence design decisions, which leads to improved processes and overall patient experiences.

Create a Long-term Plan to Support Your Facility

Good Design-Builders recognize the importance of long-term planning, which is why some of them have built healthcare facilities designed to last for 50 years; like the international, award-winning Saudi company, IHCC which specializes in the Healthcare & Educational industry since 25 years. IHCC with its experience and expertise has constructed projects to last decades in MENA region and abroad. 

One long-term planning approach is Modular Design, which involves incorporating flexibility into space, room design and other elements, so that they can adapt to future changes without the need for expensive renovation. Additionally, you can also use cost-effective and highly durable materials that last for a long time.

Practice Innovation, Collaboration and Value-Engineering

Use unique, innovative processes that deliver strong design & build solutions, and always remember the effectiveness of collaboration, which brings much greater results than individual efforts. An example of an innovative Design-Build approach is conducting a thorough Lifecycle Cost Analysis, which evaluates the long-term values of different solutions, and ultimately paves the way for intelligent design and construction decisions.

Focus on Sustainability

Incorporating green solutions and sustainable designs ensures that your facility is built to last, and reduces costs in the long-term by providing you with the best value.

 

DON’T:

Overlook the User

Make sure that your healthcare design and construction essentially benefits the users, which include the patients, their families and the medical staff. Focus on user-centered design & build to ensure that healthcare flow and processes are smooth and end in good experiences for everyone.

Get Everything Done All at Once

Plan and divide your healthcare construction project into phases. Trying to get all the work done at once can lead to disrupted plans, unforeseen costs and a lack of proper evaluation. Collaborate and communicate effectively with financial, architectural and construction teams to ensure that everything goes smoothly throughout the process.

Forget Privacy Issues

Don’t underestimate the importance of incorporating privacy considerations into your healthcare design and construction. Forgetting privacy issues of the patients, staff and families can lead to bad experiences, which ultimately disrupts your solutions.

Limit Future Possibilities

Technological advancements, researches and medical breakthroughs are constantly changing the landscape of healthcare design and construction, and it is important to incorporate adaptability in your design and build so that future changes could be made without a lot of extra costs, time and effort.

Start Without Defining Criteria to Measure Success

Many healthcare facility owners often forget the importance of defining measurable criteria at the start of a project, which leads to misleading analysis of success and results. Make sure that you define measurable criteria of project success evaluation at the very beginning, so that it could be used to identify issues early and correct them during the process.