In the midst of the largest healthcare crisis of our lifetime, healthcare staff and designers are finding themselves constantly developing new strategies to keep up with the pandemic. We are several months into the Covid-19 crisis, and active cases continue to rise. ICUs are reaching their capacities. Infection is spreading faster than contact tracers can keep up with. Short-term hospitals are being built in storage units to hold excess patients. Outside of the doctor’s office, wearing a mask is the new normal. With this new normal comes innovative designs that ensure minimal fallout. So, where do we find these designs? Who do we turn to for design assistance?
Firstly, Healthcare Design Magazine has provided the market with dozens of ideas for healthcare designers in a post Covid-19 world. For example, infection prevention, isolation rooms, redesigning public areas and reimagining waiting rooms. These are just a handful of strategies to control the spread of disease in hospitals and medical offices. With the right design assistance, these blueprints can be set up in existing structures with ease. This kind of design support is something we are passionate about at ForWard Headwall, which is why we have always been a provider of not only prefab headwalls with quick installation, but design assistance to help create a smooth, complementary layout.
Why Makes Design Assistance So Necessary?
One of the most important steps in the creation of a hospital, especially a quick build, is the design assistance. Without the right support, hospitals like this field hospital at the Miami Beach Convention Center would not have the possibility of being built in less than two weeks. From the Healthcare Design article on the building, “components of this complex project included space planning, circulation routes, logistical services, patient care planning, general-care patient pod design, critical-care negative pressure pod design, and engineered building system solutions.”
The right perspective and guidance when designing a medical building is more important than ever. In times like these, we have the ability to save lives with the right products and designs. However, we do not have the time to weigh these huge decisions. This is why, with so much at stake, we must lean on and look to each other as we adjust to this new normal together.
