Hospitals are after all communities. This is why Deerns is Rethinking healthcare spaces as smarter, more welcoming environments. We design for medical care solutions and environments where people feel safe, supported, and connected.
The hospital sector is undergoing a period of significant transformation, primarily due to new operational requirements that have emerged in recent years. These stem partly from from the ongoing challenges in recruiting healthcare personnel. These factors significantly impact the management and use of healthcare facilities, and solutions to these challenges must be integrated into the design phase.
Innovations in Healthcare
For many healthcare companies, the focus is on innovation and technology. This aims to improve flexibility, backup systems, and efficiency. User-centred design goes beyond focusing on patients, ensuring that healthcare personnel also work in environments that enhance their efficiency, effectiveness, comfort and wellbeing. The result is more welcoming, accessible, functional, and technologically advanced environments, particularly in terms of digital capabilities.
Additionally, advanced healthcare technologies are revolutionising diagnosis, treatment, and patient management, as well as improving operational efficiency for healthcare providers. This includes telemedicine systems, intelligent medical devices, surgical robotics, remote monitoring systems, and more. These technologies can only be effective if supported by a design that incorporates both general system technology and medical device technology.
New trends also highlight the importance of sustainability within an ESG framework, the need for digital integration and interoperability, the significance of data security and privacy, and innovation in the patient and visitor experience.
Balancing different facets in Complex Projects
Designing a hospital requires a holistic approach that addresses the human and social aspects as well as technical and engineering considerations. To achieve this, we use an integrated approach that involves multiple stakeholders including design experts, healthcare staff, patients and their families.
This collaborative effort allows us to develop solutions that consider the emotional, psychological, and social needs of everyone who will use the hospital.
" We view the hospital as a small community where, in addition to providing medical care, we create an environment where people feel safe, supported, and connected.
We incorporate elements such as green spaces, art, natural light and social areas to promote well-being and facilitate recovery.
Furthermore, we adopt innovative technologies and sustainable practices to ensure a safe and efficient environment. The goal is to create a space that promotes healing, reduces stress, and fosters a positive experience for everyone interacting with the hospital.
Integrating Technology and Sustainability
" Technology and sustainability are the primary drivers of innovation in healthcare facilities. Depending on the type of hospital, plant systems often account for 35% to 50% of the total construction cost.
Such a substantial economic investment in plant systems must be made with the building’s life cycle in mind, ensuring a return on investment. This approach requires a strong focus on sustainability from every perspective – not just energy and environmental sustainability, but also managerial and economic sustainability. Considering that several scientific studies have identified 50 years as the ideal lifespan for a hospital building, after which time technological obsolescence becomes a significant issue, it is clear that attention to technology and sustainability during the design phase is essential.
Here’s where we engineer the Future of Healthcare
Deerns is working with clients in several different regions to execute new care models which have arisen out of the demand for smart, digital systems. These include Indonesia, India and Europe.
Case in point – Imsett2, Italy
The Imsett2 Hospital in Carini, Palermo, is a prime example of a futureproof hospital. A public-private partnership between the Region of Sicily and UPMC, this private entity set very high standards for innovation and digitisation from the early stages.
This hospital, which has more than 250 beds and spans 50,000 m², was architecturally designed by RPBW and Progetto CMR, with Deerns responsible for the entire energy and plant strategy. The design was driven by the need to have a building ready to support the technology of tomorrow.
Designing a hospital requires a careful balance of technical, emotional and social factors, ensuring a healing environment that supports patients, staff and families. Deerns combines our extensive multidisciplinary experience worldwide with stakeholder input to create hospital spaces that not only enhance medical care but also foster safe, supportive, and healing environments.
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