Perspectives on Assessing the Flexibility of Hospitals for Crisis Mode Operations: Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Netherlands ...

Background:The COVID-19 pandemic placed healthcare design at the heart of the crisis. Hospitals faced challenges such as rapidly increasing their intensive care unit capacity, enabling physical distancing measures, quickly converting to telehealth and telework practices, and above all, keeping patients and staff safe. Improving flexibility in hospital facility design and adaptability of hospital operations to function in “crisis mode” can be seen as ways of future-proofing for pandemics. In a design brief, flexibility is typically mentioned as an important target. Meanwhile, robustness of tech... Mehr ...

Verfasser: van Heel, Liesbeth
Pretelt, Manuela
Herweijer, Milee
van Oel, Clarine
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
Verlag/Hrsg.: SAGE Journals
Schlagwörter: Medicine / Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified
Sprache: unknown
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29577453
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://dx.doi.org/10.25384/sage.c.6871856

Background:The COVID-19 pandemic placed healthcare design at the heart of the crisis. Hospitals faced challenges such as rapidly increasing their intensive care unit capacity, enabling physical distancing measures, quickly converting to telehealth and telework practices, and above all, keeping patients and staff safe. Improving flexibility in hospital facility design and adaptability of hospital operations to function in “crisis mode” can be seen as ways of future-proofing for pandemics. In a design brief, flexibility is typically mentioned as an important target. Meanwhile, robustness of technical infrastructure is called for, and standardization at unit level with single-occupancy inpatient accommodation may be considered a way to enhance flexibility and adaptability in dealing with a surge in infectious patients.Aim:To future-proof facility design with pandemic preparedness and resilience in mind, this study evaluated what kinds of interventions were taken in Dutch hospital facilities and what ...