This study aims at providing general characteristics of safety problems and current mitigation plans in academic laboratories in Thailand. This empirical study utilizes the “Enhancement of Safety Practice in Research Laboratory in Thailand” (ESPReL) checklists to identify safety problems focusing on three aspects: the chemical management system; the waste disposal system; and laboratories, equipment, and tools. The experiment gathers safety evaluation reports from 17 educational buildings with laboratories located on a university campus. The methodology includes various procedures, including walk-through observations, documentation, user interview, specialist evaluation, and stakeholders’ data verification. Finally, all the analyzed data identified common safety problems and reviewed existing mitigation plans. The finding shows common laboratory safety problems in laboratories, equipment, and tool components, where both specialists’ and laboratory users’ assessments indicate significant concerns that indicate the need for urgent improvement. In addition, the difference in results between the two parties’ evaluation occurs in some aspects, suggesting the enhancement in integrating the laboratory safety rules and guidelines into safer user habits. In conclusion, the study highlights the necessity to improve laboratories’ physical attributes and facility design, as well as refurbish the building engineering systems and safety equipment to the current building standards. Moreover, the safety awareness gap is another issue that should not be overlooked. Further study suggests investigating facility management or user-behavior effects to narrow down the gaps to improve safety in academic laboratories.
Endoscopists and medical practitioners of the Thai Association of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (TAGE) have raised critical concerns regarding vast variations in the design of endoscopy facilities. This study presents an overview of the design of gastrointestinal endoscopy units in Thailand. The case studies include six endoscopy units from four major public hospitals in Bangkok. The research methodology comprises three main parts. The first part is based on a literature review of international and local architectural design guidelines to understand and justify the research framework. The second part includes walk-through observations and documentation of the current condition. Finally, the obtained data were compared and analyzed using the framework derived from the literature review. The findings identified variations among case studies in three main aspects: (1) functional area requirements, (2) functional relationship and circulations for traffic flow, (3) detailed functional requirements. One of the causes of these design variations is related to the lack of local design guidelines. The findings support the need for design guideline establishment and implementation to ensure efficacy and safety, especially on the future adaptive reuse buildings that would turn into endoscopic units. Another noticeable finding is the circulation traffic flow planning of separation between dirty and clean corridors. Further research suggests investigating the potential and risk of implementing the non-separating corridors for more efficient use of space. The development of local design guidelines, including the three mentioned aspects with the adjustment to the local context, would be highly beneficial to the healthcare system.
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