Recommendations for the transformation of patient rooms into isolated patient rooms in the process of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

In order to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and improve the treatment process, interest in hospital design and in-hospital transformation has increased worldwide. Since Covid-19 is not believed to be the last infectious health threat for communities around the world, it is of great importance to study existing hospital adaptations and work on obtaining more planning and design strategies for treatment and wellbeing areas. In this study it is aimed to make constructive recommendations on the basis of in-space planning and mechanical ventilation, which can be applied in hospital transformations for pandemic processes. Published guidelines and literature studies for hospitals to prevent the spread of infection have been examined, structured and unstructured interviews were conducted with architects and engineers specialized in hospital design. Also, a survey was conducted with 35 hospital workers and 4 people from the hospital management to analyze the changes made in the hospital during the Covid-19 process. Afterwards, the design plans of one of the two private hospitals studied in Turkey and the steps that can be applied in the transformation of patient rooms were explained in this article with the case study. Interdisciplinary work was carried in order to ensure infection control in hospital transformations, since it is required to make in-hospital space planning (separation/ transformation of spaces, interior zoning) and ventilation (filtration, zoning of mechanical ventilation) in harmony. Suggestions were developed that could play a role in ensuring the consistency of mechanical and architectural planning in order to successfully complete hospital transformation practices to prevent the spread of infections in pandemic processes. As the transformation scenarios in this study were performed through an exemplary private hospital room in accordance with the criteria of the Turkish Ministry of Health, ventilation plans on the standard room project were detailed and shown in the conclusion section, where the transformation steps can also be adapted to other hospitals.