Buildings Hospital

the medical center @ university of virginia shows growing trend modern architecture in hospitals.


architecture

the national health service norfolk , norwich university hospital in uk, showing utilitarian architecture of many modern hospitals



hospital chapel @ fawcett memorial hospital (port charlotte, florida)

modern hospital buildings designed minimise effort of medical personnel , possibility of contamination while maximising efficiency of whole system. travel time personnel within hospital , transportation of patients between units facilitated , minimised. building should built accommodate heavy departments such radiology , operating rooms while space special wiring, plumbing, , waste disposal must allowed in design.

however, many hospitals, considered modern , product of continual , badly managed growth on decades or centuries, utilitarian new sections added on needs , finances dictate. result, dutch architectural historian cor wagenaar has called many hospitals:

... built catastrophes, anonymous institutional complexes run vast bureaucracies, , totally unfit purpose have been designed for ... hardly ever functional, , instead of making patients feel @ home, produce stress , anxiety.

some newer hospitals try re-establish design takes patient s psychological needs account, such providing more fresh air, better views , more pleasant colour schemes. these ideas harken late eighteenth century, when concept of providing fresh air , access healing powers of nature first employed hospital architects in improving buildings.

the research of british medical association showing hospital design can reduce patient s recovery time. exposure daylight effective in reducing depression. single-sex accommodation ensure patients treated in privacy , dignity. exposure nature , hospital gardens important – looking out windows improves patients moods , reduces blood pressure , stress level. eliminating long corridors can reduce nurses fatigue , stress.

another ongoing major development change ward-based system (where patients accommodated in communal rooms, separated movable partitions) 1 in accommodated in individual rooms. ward-based system has been described efficient, medical staff, considered more stressful patients , detrimental privacy. major constraint on providing patients own rooms found in higher cost of building , operating such hospital; causes hospitals charge private rooms.