FACILITY UPGRADES
HIROSHI YASUHARA – PRESIDENT, HEAJ; HIDENAO ATARASHI – UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO HOSPITAL; PROFESSOR AKIO NAKAJIMA – KYORIN UNIVERSITY; MASAKI TAKASHINA – OSAKA UNIVERSITY, JAPAN.
Remodelling hospital facilities during COVID
Hiroshi Yasuhara, president of the Healthcare Engineering Association of Japan (HEAJ), Hidenao Atarashi of the University of Tokyo Hospital, Professor Akio Nakajima of Kyorin University, and Masaki Takashina of Osaka University, examine the importance of remodelling hospital facilities during the surge phase of the pandemic in Japan.
The pandemic placed severe strain on medical services. The initial reinforcement of bed capacity for infected patients is considered to be key to mitigating the COVID-19 disaster. Cancellation of elective surgery made
the largest contribution to increasing available capacity, and is an intervention that has also been implemented in Europe and elsewhere.1,2
McCabe et al. reported
that the deployment of newly qualified/ final year medical and nursing students and the return of former healthcare staff could be one of the interventions during the surge phase.3
However, OR management and staff management
alone are not sufficient to increase the bed capacity for COVID-19 patients. There are several ways to expand hospital infrastructure capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic. These include repurposing existing facilities, installing new structures, and employing various remote strategies.4
A report from Wuhan,
China demonstrated that building a field hospital is one of the options to expand bed capacity.5
However, setting up a
field hospital is not a feasible option everywhere. Thus, a mixture of the above- mentioned strategies may be important to increase the bed capacity for COVID-19 patients. We attempted to identify significant factors to increase patient admission capacity. The objective of this study is to
examine the importance of remodelling of hospital facilities together with staff
We attempted to identify significant factors to increase patient admission capacity
Hiroshi Yasuhara
Hidenao Atarashi
•Hiroshi Yasuhara is the 12th president of the Healthcare Engineering Association of Japan (HEAJ), which takes a wide view of the whole healthcare system. Before starting a career as a healthcare professional, he spent over 25 years as a surgeon and a professor in Teikyo University and the University of Tokyo in Japan. As an OR medical director, he also managed the department of OR in the University of Tokyo Hospital. After a successful career treating many surgical patients, he worked as a director of Tokyo Teishin (Telecommunications) Hospital from 2019 to 2022.
•Hidenao Atarashi CE, MPH, Ph.D., is lecturer in the Department of Healthcare Information Management at the University of Tokyo Hospital. He received a degree in clinical engineering from the Kitasato University in 1998, and a Master’s
IFHE DIGEST 2024
Akio Nakajima
degree in public health from the University of Tokyo in 2009. Additionally, he received a Doctor’s degree in medicine from the Kitasato University in 2016. His research interests focus on the clinical engineering, medical equipment safety management, and medical facility management. He is a member of the University of Tokyo Hospital Coronavirus Infection Control Headquarters and has been actively involved in the hospital’s overall COVID-19 preparedness since the outbreak of COVID-19 began in Japan around 2020.
•Akio Nakajima is a member of the board of directors of the Healthcare Engineering Association of Japan (HEAJ) and chairman of Clinical Hospital Engineer (CHE). In 1997, he joined the National Defense Medical College as a medical engineering researcher and is currently a professor in the department of Clinical
Masaki Takashina
Engineering, Kyorin University. He is currently developing a new cardiac surgical device (Kyo-co: Kyorin Infrared coagulator) for minimally invasive surgical treatment of arrhythmia in collaboration with a professor of cardiovascular surgery and a medical device companies.
•Masaki Takashina began his medical career as an anaesthesiologist, and subsequently spent more than 30 years on the staff of the Surgical Center at Osaka University Hospital, where he was involved in its management. He is currently a professor at the hospital and head of the Surgical Center, the Central Sterilization Supply Department, and the Department of Clinical Engineering. He is also the president of the Japanese Society of Medical Instrument (JSMI) and is well versed in the field of medical device science and sterilisation supply.
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