Designing for Healthcare

Maximising patient comfort: minimising the spread of pathogens

Includes 30 min + discussion on NCC regulations pertaining to health & residential aged care for mandatory learning on for NSW Registration Board

The way we design buildings plays a crucial role in minimising the spread of pathogens and the quality of indoor air. Since we spend so much time in buildings, over 90 percent of our life, design of healthy buildings is vital.

Many of the things we take for granted in residential buildings, kitchens, bathrooms, toilets, and laundries are in fact specifically designed with an intended workflow that involves hand washing and ventilation, both natural and mechanical. These simple provisions of amenity help to keep us healthy by assisting us to reduce our exposure to pathogens.

In Australia, we do not yet have standards for Indoor Air Quality in public buildings or healthcare facilities, but the time is rapidly approaching where these will become part of our building regulations. In the meantime, we can advantage our clients by delivering healthier buildings with improved indoor air quality.

The spread of pathogens indoors, including bacteria, viruses and moulds can occur through several different vectors, travelling through the air, through presence on surfaces or via droplets, depending on the disease. With the Pandemic, we have become much more conscious of how airborne many diseases are, including COVID influenza, RSV, the common cold, and measles.

Poor ventilation in public buildings, workplace environments, schools, hospitals, and aged care homes is a key factor in the spread of airborne respiratory pathogens.

Research by ASHRAE and others shows that good ventilation as well as workflow and building design is a cost-effective way to reduce the risk of infections, particularly in healthcare and Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACF) where the risk of cross infection are elevated.

Key factors in effective healthcare design include:

• Circulation controls: Applying physical and visible barriers; airlocks and airflow controls; location of hand basins and hand hygiene stations; location of PPE donning stations prior to room or area entry, location of doffing stations and waste flows.

• Segregation: Infectious pathways and non-infectious pathways for patients and staff. Response to emergencies by increasing segregation. 

• Selecting furnishings fixtures and equipment (e.g., Interstitial Blinds) in rooms that will need to be regularly disinfected while still delivering the most uplifting interior fit out possible. 

• Strategies for staff rooms, meeting rooms and kitchenettes: Considering the benefits and risks of centralising facilities vs dispersing them. Creating high ventilation meeting spaces to lower infection risk. 

• Ventilation; DTS natural or DTS mechanical under the NCC? Some traps within the NCC and how to avoid them. 

• What can we learn from designers who have minimised the spread of airborne and environmental pathogens in the most challenging environments?

Join our panel of design, engineering and building science experts later this month who will analyse and recommend how to minimise the risk of pathogen spread in indoor spaces. Some of the areas that will be discussing include:

• Theory behind airborne pathogens. 

• Sick building syndrome and designing healthy buildings. 

• Designing for infection control: ventilation principles for controlling airflow in hospitals and in general practice.

• Ventilation in Residential Aged Care Facilities

• Naturally ventilated community buildings and indoor air quality

• The OzSAGE RACF guidelines and implementation in RACF. 

• Case studies from recent projects featuring "very clean" environments that highlight and illustrate the above issues.

• Gold Coast hospital infectious disease unit 

• Corridor and lift ventilation in healthcare.

Our Expert Presenters/Panel

Patrick Chalmers

Stantec

Patrick is the Australian Mechanical Discipline Leader for the AZN Stantec Buildings team and brings technical expertise from a diverse range of projects, sectors, and geographies. His experience covers technical mechanical design in buildings, building physics and urban sustainability initiatives. Patrick has championed research surrounding novel approaches to the challenge of indoor air quality and is recognised as a thought leader on the subject of ventilation systems and air quality. He has written widely on the subject including an article (Nov 2020) for the Property Council of Australia .... " Innovative ideas to enhance air quality” and presented on airborne transmission of Coronavirus within buildings for AIRAH (Sept 2020), Australian Healthcare Week (Feb 2021) and the European Healthcare Design Congress (June 2021).

Aija Thomas

Founding Director, STH

Aija provides the lead in health facility planning and in establishing the design philosophy for the professional development of the practice. Aija’s expertise and experience is extensive. Commencing after graduation with international experience in Canada and New Zealand and continuing in Australia with a seamless record of specialist involvement in all areas of health facility project architecture since 1978. Aija has continuously demonstrated her dedication, skill, and enthusiasm for planning solutions, illustrating understanding, lateral thinking, and innovation in each project with which she has been involved. Her skills in developing brief requirements ensure a high level of function and aesthetics. The practice’s-built works, many of which have evolved out of Aija’s health design expertise, have had a significant influence on the development of healthcare facility architecture in Australia. Aija was awarded a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 2017, for her “significant service to architecture, particularly in the area of health planning and design”.

Geoff Hanmer

Geoff is an Adjunct Professor of Architecture at the University of Adelaide, and Honorary Professional Fellow at UTS and the Managing Director of Arina, an architectural consultancy. ARINA has run design competitions for many Australian universities (including UNSW) and statutory authorities, including the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority. Geoff is a registered architect and writes on construction and buildings both contemporary and historical. He has taught and researched construction at UTS and UNSW for over 20 years.

Hari Pliambas

Director, Lyons

Hari is an integral member of the Lyons team having been with the practice since 1998, joining the studio as a high energy, hardworking Project Architect. Hari’s passion for architecture has continued to grow into a practice leader – through her extensive experience leading the design, documentation and delivery of many major public projects, she has earnt the title of Director at Lyons’. Hari has been instrumental in introducing the Lyons mentorship program. Hari fosters the growth of many in the studio, believing in the talent and promise of young architects, harnessing their skills and nurturing them to achieve their goals within Lyons’ studio. Hari is passionate about delivering an architectural design outcome that improves more than someone’s working environment. She enjoys contributing to the humanist design aspects of campuses and cities; designing great learning, work and social spaces that people use in their everyday life. Her specialist skills include leadership in the early phases of design work, incorporating broad ranging project design requirements, with a focus on establishing the brief, interpreting the client’s aspirations, and establishing innovative design responses to meet these. Having honed her skills in many complex Education, Health and Research projects, Hari is now considered the foremost Education Laboratory and Health specialist in Australia, bringing her expertise to many of Lyons award-winning projects. Her exemplary leadership has propelled her teams to deliver award winning buildings such as Monash University’s New Horizons, University of Melbourne’s Brain Centre, Australian National University’s John Curtin School of Medical Research and the University of Tasmania’s Medical Sciences Building.

CPD - Participation in this webinar will deliver 2.5 formal CPD points.

Written CPD questions will be circulated with your purchase. Send your responses to CPD questions to mark@meccaevents.com.au for the issue of a certificate of completion. Keep your receipt, completed questions and certificate for your CPD records.

For more information, contact Mark Gledhill - mark@meccaevents.com.au