HospiArch 2012 is a unique platform for sharing knowledge, challenges, ideas and best practices amongst the various stakeholders in the domain of architecture, hospital projects, hospital operations, engineering and hospital administration.
Mumbai hosted the 3rd edition of HOSPIARCH-2012, a multi-city conference on hospital planning, design and architecture. The event was organised by AMEN and HOSPACCX India systems. With over 120 delegates, the audience constituted a mix of professionals from architectural firms, hospitals, projects divisions and students. The success of the event was evident by the accolades received from the delegates, exhibitors, speakers and officials.
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| Tarun Katiyar during a session |
Tarun Katiyar, Principal Consultant, HOSPACCX India Systems stirred the thoughts of the audience with the architectural challenges faced by the projects team in micro planning the areas while considering the statutory requirements of the local and national bodies as well as international accreditation bodies. He emphasised on the need to plan for the expansion of the hospital and incorporation of a futuristic design. He believes Vaastu has a scientific basis which aids in quicker recovery of the patient.
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| Dr Vivek Desai addresses the audience |
Dr Vivek Desai, MD of HOSMAC, Mumbai engaged the audience by sharing his vast experience in hospital planning and operations. According to Dr Desai, a good hospital project implementation serves as an investment for 40 years. He explained in depth the stages in hospital planning viz. project conceptualisation, feasibility analysis, building design, project management and commissioning.
Eminent architect and LEED accredited professional, Sandeep Shikre, Head, SSA Architects spoke on the hot topic “Planning a Green Hospital”. Shikre steered a multidisciplinary team at Kohinoor Hospital in ensuring the world’s second and Asia’s first LEED Platinum rating for a hospital. The hospital has incorporated rain water harvesting, roof overdecking, utilisation of daylight and the many ways the hospital used the waste which was generated from landfills to intelligent utilisation and recycling of steel, furniture, etc.
Abhishek Singh, Director-Healthcare of CRISIL stressed on the importance of financing and having an internal relook of existing hospitals. Singh discussed on the financial options like private equity, strategic partnership, structured term loans and Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).
A riot of colours and designs, as well as a non-porous, easily manageable flooring is an administrator’s delight. Bringing this to the fore, Naresh Duble, DGM-Business development, Armstrong World Industries spoke on the topic “Hospitals are for people—Design Solutions” and enlightened the audience with Dr David M Sykes study on How Acoustics affect Human Productivity that 48 per cent of the workers were able to focus better, conversational distractions were decreased by 51 per cent, error rates decreased by 10 per cent and stress was reduced by 27 per cent.
Chiranjib Dey, Head – Design (Healthcare), Edifice Consultants spoke on the space, equipment and engineering planning in a hospital. The hospital needs to be segregated and planned appropriately like the out patient, diagnostic, treatment, administrative, service, research and training functions. Space planning has to be done based on movement and communication between people, materials and waste. He explained that the essence of a successful master plan of is its expandability, modularity and flexibility.
A central sterile supplies department (CSSD) is an integral part of the hospital and needs to be well planned. Anuradha Desai, Academy Manager – Getinge India Pvt Ltd, shared a few plans of CSSD so that the flow of the linen, consumables and the sterile trays did not cross with the unsterile/ used trays.
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| Dr Akash Rajpal addressing a panel |
An interesting mix of panelists moderated by Dr Akash Rajpal, MD and CEO, Ekohealth Management Consultants, Mumbai answered queries of the audience related to planning of a new hospital, re-modeling of existing hospital, emergence of day care/ short stay specialty hospitals, financing of hospitals, the role of technology in the smooth running of a hospital and how to meet the accreditation requirements in terms of infrastructure.
According to the World Health Report 2006, India has only 0.6 physicians compared to 2.56 of US, 0.86 nurses compared to 9.37 of US and 0.02 lab technicians compared to 2.15 of US per 1000 population. Ankush Gupta, Asst Director, Hinduja Hospital shared his experience of manpower planning at Hinduja Hospital with a pragmatic approach with respect to the functional areas, working hours, complexity of equipments used and the leave policy of the organisation. He stressed on the fact that human resources need to be planned well as 18-20 per cent of the cash flow is spent on the staff salaries and a surplus can lead to financial difficulties.
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| Participants came in from variuos parts of the country | Team Hospaccx |
Hospital IT received a special emphasis as Dr Amitava Dutta, MD and CEO, Ubq Technologies elaborated on the challenges in healthcare IT. The reasons for failure of a HIS is the lack of needed information, the technology partner fails to deliver or the belief in the solution is lost. Identifying the right information which is required by the end user is of utmost importance. There’s lots of data in a hospital, but if that data is not transformed into information it becomes a waste.
Anooj Vakil, General Manager – Turnkey Designs, HOSMAC, elaborated on the challenges the architectural team faces when the founder/owner sets the ball rolling to expand horizontally or vertically an existing hospital, or convert a hotel or a mall into a hospital. Redesigning the flow of people, materials and waste needs an innovative approach. There would be challenges in designing the existing structure, shutting down or temporarily relocating for a short duration, sound pollution and patient safety. The floor map examples cited broadened the horizons of the audience in terms of thinking afresh about redesigning the existing hospitals.
Patient safety has assumed high importance following the unfortunate incident at AMRI, Kolkata. Hence the topic “Hospital Planning, designing and architectural considerations with regard to fire safety” by Dr Swapnil K was the much awaited talk. Dr Swapnil dwelt on the fire detection, fire containment, fire fighting and evacuation methods and the regulations for buildings as per the National Building Code.
“The momentum of HospiArch is tremendously increasing and we are extremely happy and motivated with its success. After Indore, Bangalore, Kochi and Delhi in 2012, we plan to take HospiArch to the international level”, shared Paniel, Founder and Chief Strategist of AMEN, who are the principal organisers of HospiArch.
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