HOSPITAL DESIGN
their medical data from their bedside tablet. The idea is that information systems
communicate with each other to anticipate the needs of patients and healthcare workers, and many of these smart features were first tested and piloted at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital. One includes a real-time locating system. This involves tagging patient wristbands, healthcare workers’ ID badges, and hospital devices, with real-time locating tags, to enable staff to quickly track down colleagues and necessary equipment. Inside rooms, sensors on staff ID badges alert them to patient statistics, which are immediately displayed on a bedside tablet and television screen. The system integrates with the hospital’s security system too. Electronic tags are given to patients at risk of wandering, or to keep new mothers and their babies connected.
Patient confidentiality “We are also making sure patient confidentiality is maintained, but it is an integrated information system that crucial staff have access to, and patients can control to some extent,” explained George Bitsakakis. Outside patient rooms, tablets display
data such as patient allergies, and whether an interpreter is needed. Inside, smart beds instantly monitor patients through an application that integrates into other hospital applications like electronic medical records. For instance, smart beds can weigh patients to determine medication doses, or send an alert to care workers’ mobile devices if a patient, at risk of falling, attempts to get out of bed. A smartphone app prioritises information among staff, such as code alerts, patient status, and clinician availability. Patients in medical distress or in need of
washroom assistance can directly connect to their care team’s mobile devices through a sophisticated nurse call system. More recently, the hospital rolled out a digital pathology platform for speedier diagnostics – also a first in Canada. Prior to this, physical samples were couriered to outside experts if a consultation was required. Mackenzie Health says connecting digitally in this way allows its team to pull up a sample on a screen, and have a team of experts view it within hours.
A pandemic plan Infection control also figures into smart technology offerings. Real-time locating sensors in hand sanitiser stations at the building entrance and inside patient rooms ensure hand hygiene compliance. Features like this bode well during a pandemic. In fact, the hospital was designed with such a global emergency in mind. When COVID-19 unravelled across the country in 2020, the hospital focused exclusively
As users navigate the 1.2 m ft2 the main entrance.
building, light and transparency guide them right from
on creating more space for critical and acute care patients, pushing its full public opening to June 2021. Getting ahead of this national
emergency meant establishing two command centres, explained George Bitsakakis. The auditorium was designed for a pandemic, with a secondary centre as a back-up. Units can be isolated with vestibules to activate when a pandemic hits. “This was already built in, and that has to be the way of the future for hospitals designed now,” he said. “A lot of us had gone through SARS, so COVID isn’t the first time we’ve been exposed to this.” The majority of patient rooms are
private, with dedicated washrooms – key to reducing virus transmission. Inside the Emergency Department, every unit and pod has an airborne infection isolation room in case patients need to be treated under airborne precautions. Some entire units also convert into negative pressure areas, with separate HVAC systems that direct air outside through HEPA filtration. Care teams can subsequently separate and isolate patients by closing off a whole area.
Change in mind Hospitals are in an ongoing metamorphosis. Imagining them as such will carry healthcare into a new era; one that thrives on change. “We do a lot of renovations in hospitals, and what we’ve found is that (many) of them have not anticipated change, so we designed (considerable) flexibility into
this,” said George Bitsakakis. At Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, a room can shift for post-partum or physical isolation, but at the heart is the same module, and not so specific. The whole facility was located and designed to expand on site, in case a larger wing is needed. Many hospitals, George Bitsakakis notes, end up with no land, and must regenerate outside of town or purchase expensive properties nearby. “The needs and operations of hospitals
do evolve, and if there’s no flexibility, they get stuck,” he added. “The idea of flexibility, adaptability, regeneration, expansion, and design for outbreaks – those are the themes that should now be considered for all facilities.”
n This article, titled ‘Smart hospital design through the patient’s eyes’, was originally published in the Winter 2021/2022 issue of Canadian Healthcare Facilities, the official journal of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES). HEJ thanks the author, and CHES, for allowing its reproduction here in slightly edited form.
Rebecca Melnyk
Rebecca Melnyk is a journalist based in Canada. She is the editor of Canadian Facility Management & Design and Condo Business magazines.
May 2022 Health Estate Journal 29
Courtesy of Tom Arban
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