How the Coronavirus Pandemic Has Changed Healthcare Design

Abstract

Healthcare facility design has evolved over time with new evidence as to which design concepts work best for specific patient populations, support care providers, and to increase safety. At no other time in history has healthcare design changed so rapidly as with the COVID-19 pandemic. Immediate facility changes were necessary to accommodate the surge of patients infected with the highly contagious virus and to isolate hospitalized patients in respiratory isolation with negative pressure rooms. The need for facility changes were critical and urgent. Initially, little was known about caring for such patients infected with the novel virus, but it was clear as to how contagious they were to care providers and to other patients. The purpose of this article is to report on immediate facility changes made in hospitals to accommodate COVID-19 patients, discuss findings and implications from selected papers recently published in Health Environments Research & Design Journal (HERD), and identify future priority design topics for healthcare and design practitioners. Clearly, the pandemic has affected healthcare design considerations for the future.

The impact of COVID-19 on visitors' wayfinding within healthcare centers

“…In fact, visitors preferred to consider personal spaces for their interactions, rather than joining shared spaces with others. This issue is in line with previous findings regarding the waiting area typologies of healthcare centers in order to constrain the spread of COVID-19 [89] . On the other hand, the lobby space, due to its more spacious nature, and also being adjacent to the entrance space, provided better ventilation.…”

Droplet Distribution in a University Dental Clinic Setting: The Importance of High-Volume Evacuation

“…This study emphasizes the need for combining multiple infection control protocols to minimize aerosol contamination. Future studies may analyze droplet contamination with multiple bays operating simultaneously to replicate reality more closely and the complex interactions this may elicit [ 11 ]. This may include assessing ventilation positioning and adjusting airflow intensity.…”

“…As such, there is a capacity for droplets to extend beyond the treatment area immediately surrounding the patient. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, JCU Dental, along with many other healthcare facilities [ 11 ], introduced greater infection control measures to limit the risk of infection between patients, staff, and students. These control measures included removing stocks of gloves and masks from individual cubicles, switching to non-permeable isolation gowns for staff and students, and requiring patient consultations to be performed while wearing personal protective equipment (PPE).…”

Clinic Design for Safety During the Pandemic: Safety or Teamwork, Can We Only Pick One?

“…Design for flexibility. Flexibility of hospitals was identified as a critical design consideration for the future for pandemics (Stichler, 2021). Likewise, the benefits of flexibility in clinic design was highlighted in the case studies.…”

“…Out of necessity, healthcare organizations are implementing safety measures, including physical distancing and masking in healthcare facilities, to protect patients and healthcare professionals from COVID-19 transmission. Such urgent and critical needs are changing healthcare facility design (Stichler, 2021). These changes are often based on specific guidelines provided by groups of experts, including designers, engineers, and public health practitioners.…”