Architect and Builder February/March 2019 | Page 11

thousands of sensors monitoring their rooms, the building
systems, and the patients’ conditions. The sensors will feed
patient data into Big Data and analytics systems, backed by AI,
that will sift for any irregularities and alert medical professionals
when attention is needed. This opens new conversations around
telemedicine, in that machines can now be used to screen all
symptoms and provide preliminary diagnosis, or continual or on-
demand monitoring of conditions.
Powerful computer systems will be at the heart of these smart
and connected hospitals of the future. The technological hubs
will also require the capacity to manage huge amounts of data
supporting diagnostics feedback from a range of real-time sources,
including wearables or digestible sensors. Additionally, leveraging
this capacity, the data, along with using delivery mechanisms
such as telecare and video conference – even at community-
based day clinics – immensely increases opportunities to provide
one-stop, remote diagnosis and outpatient care.
Building for resilience
Resilience takes many forms. Globally, there is a continuous
drive for - though not exclusive to - efficiency and cost reduction,
increasing bacterial resistance, and the need for resilience to
climate change and future energy and water scarcity. There is also
a growing understanding that the environment in which patients
are treated and cared for is a significant contributing factor to the
healing process. And, if we look at global healthcare centres being
built, there are a number of innovative architectural elements and
sustainable design principles being incorporated and aligned to
these drivers.
In the African context, these drivers are just as important,
yet often compounded by ageing and over-subscribed health-
care infrastructure and strained budgets for new builds or
refurbishments. And, while there are some phenomenal, forward-
thinking Government-led and private hospital group projects that
are adopting these principles to create world class hospitals and
medical centres, largely we still seem to be falling behind this
modern global trend. Often, this can be attributed to concerns
Co-working Trend
over delivering a project within budget. However, we need to
break free of this way of thinking.
To put this into context, in the commercial property space
building for efficiency, sustainability and climate change
resistance have already been proven to boast significant return
on investment. Added to this, in many parts of Africa there are
infrastructure concerns that constrain access to basic services
such as water and power. This makes the case in Africa much
stronger for hospitals and healthcare facilities to implement
green building best practices and renewable energy solutions
to provide their own power and heat efficiently, making them
self-sufficient in the event of outages and, at the same time,
countering the effects of climate change, rising energy costs
and water scarcity.
Similarly, resilience to remain operational during natural
disasters will be important in some parts of Africa, as will
resilience to disease and infections given trends towards antibiotic
resistance. Interiors fitted out with bacterial resistant materials
and ‘self-healing’ surfaces will help infection control, as will
rooms designed to be cleaned by robots. Added to this, a resilient
hospital will increasingly enhance the working environment,
improving staff retention and engagement rates, making the
facility extremely competitive in attracting the very best clinicians.
High performance smart hospitals and medical facilities may
be rated and attain excellence across multiple measures of
performance; from energy-efficient building systems to improved
clinical outcomes, and enhanced patient and staff wellbeing.
Leveraging global trends to design and build African healthcare
facilities based on the patient-centric approach, will allow public
and private sector providers to ensure a better experience and
deliver value and return-on-investment across the board. In
particular, we must move away from the principle of big concrete
blocks that have a surgical and clinical feel and towards creating
well-designed, functional spaces that are future ready as well as
economically and sustainably sound.
www.healthcare.wsp-pb.com
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