An international survey on the design of post-pandemic hospitals: strategies for responding to patients’ surge and the challenges of wellbeing of staff and family members

Funding Sponsor

American University in Cairo

Author's Department

Construction Engineering Department

Second Author's Department

Architecture Department

Find in your Library

https://doi.org/10.1108/F-08-2024-0107

All Authors

Ahmed Sherif Mariam Iskander

Document Type

Research Article

Publication Title

Facilities

Publication Date

6-24-2025

doi

10.1108/F-08-2024-0107

Abstract

Purpose: Health-care systems faced great challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitals were unprepared to respond to the surge of patients and improve the well-being of staff and patients’ family members during future pandemics. This paper aims to report on the opinions of health-care design professionals and academics on how hospital design can help address these challenges in the future. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey was sent to health-care design professional and academics from 30 countries. The number of participants was 56 respondents who practiced hospital design in five continents. More than 80% of the respondents had more than 10 years of experience. The questionnaire responses were tabulated, and results were compared to arrive at the strategies that received highest levels of agreement among participants. Findings: Survey results indicate that acuity adaptable rooms are needed for responding to patients’ surge challenges. Participants expressed that 30%–40% of the inpatient rooms of tertiary-care-level hospitals should be readily convertible to intensive care unit (ICU) during pandemics, and that 53% of the ICU rooms and 34% of the inpatient rooms should be convertible to airborne infection isolation rooms. The majority of respondents agreed that hospital soft spaces should be designed for easy conversion to patient rooms or treatment spaces. They also agreed that hospital staff and patients’ family members should have access to the outdoors and fresh air and that family members’ facilities should have access to natural light and external natural view. The majority of the respondents indicated that staff should have sleeping rooms and larger lounges. They also expressed strong preference to providing the waiting areas of the emergency and outpatient departments with access to natural light and external natural view. Research limitations/implications: The results of this survey have shed light on some of the aspects that should be considered when designing future hospitals so that they would be more supportive to the operational needs of future pandemic/emergency situations. However, the aspects investigated in this study should not be considered universally applicable. Results may be affected by the economic, social, technical and operational conditions of each hospital. They may be also affected by the respondents’ professional background and experience. Also, it would be useful if future studies would address the cost/effectiveness of the different design strategies suggested in this paper. Practical implications: The results of this study provide guidance to health-care design professionals on the strategies that can be adopted when designing hospitals to cope with future pandemic/emergency situations. The aim is to help produce designs that are responsive to the surge capacity challenges and supportive to the well-being of staff and patient’s family members during pandemic/emergency situations. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first international survey that systematically captures the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic by hospital design professionals and academics from five continents.

First Page

670

Last Page

693

Link to Full Text
Find this item online

Share

COinS