Bernstein & Associates, Architects is pleased to announce the publication of a new hospital design article focused on a smart renovation approach. The article was published in the Hospital Newspaper.
Highlights of this hospital architecture article :
- The meaning of the term “smart renovation”
- How to increase efficiency and create a healthier hospital building for the patients, staff, and the environment
- Often a synonym for “green renovation”
- Best way to cut hospital energy costs is to use smarter hospital design to utilize water, electricity, and fuels more efficiently
- Healthier workplaces and homes can also result in healthier, more productive staff, visitors and owners
- “Retro-commission” of hospital architecture
- Reasons to utilize green design in hospital planing
- Green renovations, by increasing the efficiency of existing lighting and HVAC systems, cost the consumer considerably less to maintain.
- U.S. Federal Government has jumped on the green renovation bandwagon.
- There are numerous ways that hospital architects can design a hospital can be improved to reduce costs and lessen environmental impact.
- Hospital Lighting Cost Reduction: better lighting is one of the easiest ways to cut costs. - Basic improvements include fluorescent light bulbs, motion sensors to turn lights off when not needed, light sensors to dim the lights when natural lighting is sufficient, and individual desk lamps in place of overhead lighting.
- Break the lighting grid of hospital buildings into more sections so workers only need to turn on the necessary overhead lights.
- A design technique for a hospital architects to use natural lighting more
- Hospital HVAC Cost Reduction: installing better insulation and sealing heat leaks (which are found using an infra-red scanner,) fixing faulty mechanisms within the HVAC systems, and installing better-sealed windows, radiant in-floor heating, machines for recovering heat from used hot water, ventilation controls for individual desks, and programmable thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and hands-free faucets, which can be charged by ambient light.
- Some of the most popular and extravagant green ideas are solar panels and wind turbines for supplemental energy, geo-thermal heating, and Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs,) but these are all large investments.
- A number of hospitals have reaped the rewards of investing in better light and climate conditions and have seen huge returns on this investment.
- Smart renovations may mean adapting to modern technologies as well.
- The emphasis on smart design for hospitals and smart renovation for hospitals has been a growing trend in recent years.
- Implications for hospital plans
- For hospital facilities, the same rules apply as they do for other buildings. The facility must have room for, and money to fund, the necessary hospital planning. Surface changes to a medical facility can have a large impact, though, and shouldn’t be overlooked. Working to improve lighting conditions can make medical professionals’ jobs much easier and make the hospital experience friendlier and healthier for patients. Also, careful troubleshooting of HVAC systems can save a facility a significant amount of money.
- In terms of improving workflow, it can be a difficult but rewarding process for medical facilities. - With the new digital technologies, radiology rooms and other parts of hospitals can and should be decentralized to facilitate access to important medical information.
- Pneumatic tubing for the easy distribution of drugs is another way that hospitals can speed up many processes to save time and labor and, therefore, money.
© 2010 by William N. Bernstein, LEED®AP, AIA and Ian Janer. Well known hospital architect Mr. Bernstein is a principal of Bernstein & Associates, Architects (www.bernarch.com), which is focused on smart renovations for hospital clients, with offices in New York, Hartford, Princeton and Los Angeles. The firm is known for innovative hospital planning, hospital design, hospital architecture and hospital interior design. Additional ways to follow the hospital design philosophy and hospital design news, is through the firm’s hospital design blog at www.bernarch.blogspot.com, as well as the firm’s hospital design Twitter account at www.twitter.com/hospitals
About Bernstein & Associates, Architects: Founded in 1990, this company is an award-winning architectural firm and specializing in the design and planning of radiology departments. The firm takes pride in providing the highest level of healthcare and hospital design work, with additional expertise in sustainable healthcare facilities, energy saving measures for hospitals, cost reduction strategies for hospitals, hospital safety and patient safety.
For Hospital Design see, http://bernarch.com/healthcare-design-hospitals/
For more information about hospital planning, hospital architecture, and hospital interior design, please contact:
William N. Bernstein, LEED®AP, AIA
Principal - Bernstein & Associates, Architects - PLLC
59 West 19th Street - 6A New York, NY 10011
Office: 212.463.8200 - Fax: 212.463.9898
Email: info@bernarch.com
www.bernarch.com
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