FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
an electrical point of view, including medicinal gases, nurses’ calls and remote controlled CCTVs connected to the control room and toilets to host suspected COVID-19 patients and avoid any possibility of contagion with patients present for other pathologies.
l Transformation of operating rooms and recovery rooms into intensive care units for COVID-19 patients.
l Creating of routes and temporary boxes with dirty/clean filters to allow the donning/doffing of staff.
l Reversal of air flows in departments equipped with forced ventilation, construction of dedicated systems or use of extractors positioned on windows to create negative pressure environments.
l Application of WHO’s COVID-19 infection prevention and control guidelines, specifying the environmental characteristics to prevent airborne contagion in environments: •Where aerosol therapy is practiced: perform procedures in an adequately ventilated room, with natural ventilation with an air flow of at least 160 litres per second (l/s) per patient to be obtained by opening doors and windows or in negative pressure rooms with at least 12 air changes per hour and controlled direction of air flow when using mechanical ventilation. •Where aerosol therapy is not practiced: single hospital rooms, with natural ventilation with air flow of at least 60 l/s per patient to be obtained by opening doors and windows.
l Enhancement of the storage capacity of oxygen tanks and supplementary racks for cylinders, implementation of power lines and reduction panels to allow simultaneous operation of CPAP breathing systems and non-invasive ventilation.
l Adjustments of electrical systems to current regulations for resuscitation, implementation of electrical outlets for each bed, integration of special systems for patient management (nurse call, network points, video surveillance for remote monitoring).
l Creation of areas for dialysis dedicated to COVID-19 patients.
l Implementation of cold rooms for the storage of corpses in mortuary chambers.
l Adaptation of laboratories for specific tests for COVID-19.
l Identification and implementation of areas for the storage and distribution of PPE for staff.
l Identification and implementation of areas for storage and collection of waste.
Identification of lifts to be dedicated
exclusively to COVID-19 patient paths. l Separation of COVID-19 and non-
18
Intensive Care Unit used for COVID-19 at Hospital-University Authority of Bologna – Sant’Orsola Polyclinic.
IFHE DIGEST 2021
COVID-19 areas and related paths with many different solutions.
l Identification of dining rooms and dedicated areas for dressing, undressing equipped with screens and mirrors on wheels for specific staff training. Installation of plexiglass panels for all
front offices, information points, acceptance points, drug distribution, etc. l Sketching of clear explanatory plans of the location and of the routes relating to the various COVID-19 areas, continuously updated and available to healthcare personnel on the company intranet.
l Installation of sanitary equipment for new intensive, sub-intensive and inpatient therapies, IT equipment, computers, furniture (armchairs, trolleys, etc.), phones, two-way radios, tablets, smartphones.
l Development of management software and specific dashboards for monitoring bed control.
Fighting in the trenches The above is only a short list of the continuous and constant activities that have involved and still involve hospital technicians to assure that the entire environment of the hospital is suitable for hosting COVID-19 patients and safe for medical and non-medical staff as well as all the other hospital patients. In the war against COVID-19 there are
two advanced lines fighting side by side: those who are in the trenches and those
who meticulously but quickly prepare the trenches: those who, in practice, identify and create new areas to be allocated to the intensive care, sub-intensive and hospitalization wards in full compliance with all the technical-sanitary regulations, verifying their suitability, converting previously abandoned wards or planning the construction of new areas. Above all, this work which involves engineers, architects and health technicians, experts in the sector, who with daily dedication and commitment, strengthened by their experience and specific professionalism in the field of hospitals and technological systems, enable the creation of first-class survival perimeters for patients. All the organisations approached the crisis with the establishment of a task force (crisis unit), decisive for supporting decisions and for analysing the flows of COVID and non-COVID patients. The preparation of on-time information flows has been essential for making decisions based on clinical and organizational evidence that has been continually updated.
Decisions have been made on a day-
to-day basis, with the flexibility to adapt action to the pace of the pandemic. The health emergency has generated, for healthcare organisations and hospitals, the adoption of logics and tools for managing ‘decisions’ that have proved invaluable both in the management of post-COVID phase, of progressive return to normality, and in the possible arrival of new epidemic waves.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116
