Dialysis facility design - Part III: How to outfit an existing building for use as a dialysis clinic

Abstract

Retrofitting an existing building to use as a dialysis clinic involves more planning, additional design considerations, and stricter attention to code requirements compared with building a clinic from the ground up. The existing building must meet or surpass all current codes to be occupied after renovation. A new rehabilitation, or "smart," code provides options that did not exist even two or three years ago. These options must be evaluated concerning the safety of the patient and staff in a dialysis facility. There are security risks involved in renovation both during and after construction that concern suspect materials and inaccuracies in dated as-built documents. This article, the third in a series of four that focus on dialysis clinic design, discusses several problem scenarios encountered in renovation and the types of solutions critical to project success.