HOSPITAL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
the islet room that they couldn’t suspend the ceiling. It had to be supported from underneath. On top of this, how do you build within a sterile
environment during a COVID lockdown? “The trades had to go through the OR suites to access
the regeneration rooms,” explained Keith Button. “They gowned up like they were surgeons. When they made it through COVID protocols they ditched their street clothes and switched into scrubs. Eventually, the contractors gave them scrubs to put over street clothes, along with masks and hairnets. They would come in to do their work, then dispose of their personal protective equipment. There was no coming and going. The trades on site had to stay for the entire day.”
Keth Button (left), Senior architectural designer at Kearns Mancini Architects, and his colleague, architect and Principal, Jonathan Kearns.
Intricate layout “This is cutting edge,” explained Christopher Rizzo. “The intricate layout means you must be quite disciplined. The ergonomics had to be tested and proven in detail. Where is the medical gas? Are services within reaching distance of surgeons in a very tight space? When the surgeon is working around the medical bench – where they work shoulder to shoulder – there must be enough freedom for the surgeons to do their job, but the equipment must be right at their side so it’s within reach. The sightlines, lighting, microphones. It’s all recorded – so viewers can see it in real-time.” Keith Button spent weeks meeting with their partners, Dineen Construction, about the tight tolerances, putting everything within reach, plotting out the ergonomics, and trying to gain five millimetres in ceiling height to hang equipment. There was so little space above the ceiling in
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Sensitivities understood For Christopher Rizzo, KMAI distinguished themselves from other firms. “They understood the sensitivities (and that) they couldn’t breech a sterile environment, so following the rule to gown up in the area, removing gowns just like the medical staff, and being precise in the way they executed the project, was no different than the precision of the surgeons,” he explained. KMAI’s experience gleaned from being Ontario’s leading passive house architects helped because the firm understood isolating air and moving air. “We were able to do something that is helping a lot of people,” said Keith Button. “Beyond that, we freed up an OR that is now back up to full operation. The hospital gained the extra capacity it needs with so many postponed surgeries.” These procedures are going to change what is done across the planet,” said Christopher Rizzo. “An amazing journey about something that is cutting edge, and that is going to help save many, many people.”
Acknowledgment n This article, titled ‘Preparing for Transplant’, first
appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of Canadian Healthcare Facilities, the official magazine of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES). HEJ thanks the author, CHES, and the magazine’s publisher, MediaEdge, for allowing its reproduction, in slightly edited form, here.
John Gregory
John Gregory is a full-range learning designer and strategic communications professional and a Partner at Toronto- based CGC Educational Communications. After attending the London (UK) Film School and achieving an MFA (Playwrighting), he worked as a journalist and award- winning playwright before a successful career in corporate communications. At CGC Educational Communications, John has led the development of ‘landmark’ experiential learning programmes for employees, teachers, and young people. He has also used his corporate communications experience to help build ‘story brands’.
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November 2024 Health Estate Journal 47
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