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European Union of Private Hospitals

Good practices in the design of hospital space during a pandemic

JUNE 2021 – A team of Polish scientists from the VITA Management design office and the Wrocław University of Science and Technology are looking for European research partners, as well as hospitals ready to share their own experiences in preparing for the safe treatment of patients in the current COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of the project is to develop guidelines for the creation of hospitals for future pandemics using the best European experience of hospitals created for the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

For centuries, infectious diseases had a different area of ​​influence, they affected individual cities, countries and even continents. Their range was associated with social development, including the development of communication, technology, medical knowledge, and above all, with the adopted and implemented methods of limiting the spread of the disease. The most common and effective method of limiting the development of the disease was to isolate infected people from healthy people. In the history of the development of hospitals, various solutions for setting up hospitals for the purpose of isolating patients can be found.

So-called “temporary hospitals” were built as early as the 19th century to isolate groups of patients in order to prevent the spread of the disease. An example of a large temporary hospital built for the victims of the France-Prussian war in 1870 was the temporary hospital in Berlin Moabit (photo No. 1). This building, consisting of 30 pavilions, gave rise to the so-called pavilion hospital construction, which was continued for the next several dozen years. However, most often, in order to quickly limit the spread of infection, existing buildings were adapted for temporary hospitals. Various large-scale buildings with spacious interiors were used to accommodate the patients. For these purposes, industrial facilities such as production halls or public buildings such as theatres, sports halls, and schools were used.
The spread of the COVID-19 virus and the surge in infections made it necessary to look for a space to treat infected patients outside the overcrowded existing hospitals. Temporary hospitals built as makeshift facilities or created by adapting existing facilities have become a necessity in most countries affected by the COVID-19 epidemic.

Designing, building, organizing, and operating temporary hospitals during the current COVID-19 epidemic is the subject of ongoing research work to determine the best solutions to be applied in the next potential epidemic.
A team of Polish scientists from the VITA Management design office and the Wrocław University of Science and Technology conducts research on applied solutions in the design and organization of temporary hospitals during the COVID-19 epidemic. Research on the solutions used and their effects in reducing and treating patients is to help create solutions that can be used in the future in the event of another epidemic.
Currently, research is conducted in Poland. The largest of the built temporary hospitals are analysed, as well as hospitals adapted for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
The subject of the research is:
  • architectural assumptions of a temporary hospital or a hospital adapted to the needs of COVID-19 patients;
  • architectural assumptions of the hospital;
  • spatial organization of the hospital;
  • hospital work organization applied;
  • patient and staff safety systems used;
  • applied technical solutions, including hospital ventilation;
  • application of new technologies in the organization of hospital work;
  • costs of building and equipping a hospital;
  • operating costs of the hospital;
  • plans for using the hospital after the pandemic ends.
The authors of the study plan solutions in the organization of temporary hospitals applied in Poland to be compared with projects implemented in other countries.
The result of international research is to create guidelines for the creation of hospitals for future pandemics using the best European experience of hospitals created for the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.