FEATURE ARTICLES

In an article that first appeared in US magazine, Medical Construction & Design, Mark Howell, senior vice-president of Skanska USA Building, based in Seattle, describes the design and construction of a new nine-storey, 350,000 ft2 extension to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Washington state.

In an article which first appeared in print in the March 2012 issue of The Australian Hospital Engineer, based on a presentation given at the Institute of Hospital Engineering Australia’s 2009 National Conference, Scott Wells, energy manager, Engineering & Building Services, at Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital, and Mark Collen, a district account manager, Engineering and Process Development Division, at water treatment specialist, Nalco, discuss how sound, regular, and thorough, maintenance and cleaning of hospital air-handing units will not only enhance their operating efficiency, but will also help reduce airborne infection risk in the healthcare facilities they serve.

Susan Pearson BSc reports on a recent specialist waterborne diseases ‘masterclass’ held in Nottingham, at which leading experts discussed not only the control of Pseudomonas, but also other problematic waterborne pathogens such as Legionella, the cause of Legionnaires‘ disease.

Peter Jennings, technical director for ACO Building Drainage, which specialises in the development of corrosion-resistant drainage systems and building products, looks at the key issues to consider when specifying and installing pipework and drainage for hygiene-critical environments such as hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports on some of the key advances in large capital equipment for the operating theatre. Here, he discovered, major drivers include continuing growth in the use of laparoscopic and endoscopic surgery, increasing demand for the ability to share and stream ‘live’ audio and video footage of innovative surgical techniques to other locations to improve skills and boost training, and a general desire to improve efficiency, ergonomics, and patient flow.

Turnkey construction company, MTX Contracts, has recently completed a suite of five ‘modern and future-proofed’ operating theatres at the Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire, in the first phase of a 90-phase, £89.9 million redevelopment of facilities at the North Wales hospital being undertaken by Laing O’Rourke for the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

Established in 2005 on a 78-acre site near Watford by a research-based consultancy, testing, and training organisation with a reputation for independence and impartiality, the BRE’s Watford Innovation Park is today home to a broad range of research, consultancy, and testing activities, for the built environment.

Joss Elliott, branch manager, Warrington, at national roofing contractor, Bracknell Roofing, looks at some of the ways that roofs can help health sector specifiers reduce a building’s carbon footprint.

Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has announced that, as part of the new ‘healthcare landscape’, NHS Property Services (PropCo), which will be owned by the Department of Health (DH), will take ownership of existing primary care trust (PCT) estate not transferred to community care providers.

Scott Sinden, managing director of glass processor, Essex Safety Glass (ESG), examines some of the latest trends and developments in the design, manufacture, and supply of increasingly sophisticated security glazing systems, and explains how they can benefit a wide variety of hospital and other healthcare buildings in terms not only of improving the patient environment, but also reducing maintenance requirements and enhancing infection control.

Martin Wilkinson, national sales manager at system protection specialist, Spirotech UK, highlights the ‘potential negative consequences’ of value engineering in heating system specification in the healthcare sector, and argues that system protection products such as de-aerators and dirt separators have considerable value in preventative maintenance, and in helping to extend the useful life of both the system as a whole, and its vital parts.

The NHS has one of the world’s largest and most varied estates, which at any time accommodates many of the most dependent people in society. With around 6,000 fires occurring in NHS premises each year, its duty of care – and that of other healthcare providers – demands very close attention to fire safety.

Last month’s HEJ featured an article based on a presentation at a recent IHEEM seminar given by Dr Jimmy Walker, principal investigator, Decontamination, Biosafety Unit, Microbiology Services, at the Health Protection Agency, who provided valuable advice on detecting and dealing with Pseudomonas in hospital water supplies.

In response to the enactment of the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill, and following a ‘period of transition’ in the Department of Health, the NHS Estates and Facilities Policy Division has outlined an ‘agenda’ that sets out its key responsibilities and functions as the health service enters a new era.

Callum MacInnes BSc (Hons), AIFireE, an engineer at WSP UK – part of a global design engineering and management consultancy group specialising in property, transport and infrastructure, industry and environment projects – and his colleague, senior engineer, Richard Rankin CEng MEng (Hons) MIFireE, discuss the importance of passive fire protection in healthcare premises.

With an increasing number of NHS Trusts and Health Boards now incorporating single-bed en suite patient bedroom design into their hospitals, but with the protagonists and opponents no nearer to settling their differences on this form of accommodation, a presentation at this NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership Facilities Services (formerly Welsh Health Estates) conference in Cardiff on the experiences of staff, patients, and visitors, at Wales’s first 100% single-bed hospital, the Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan in Ebbw Vale, based on analysis and feedback from its first year in operation, provided some interesting data and conclusions.

The recent Ecobuild 2012 conference and exhibition in London focused on the key environmental issues and challenges for the UK construction, estates and facilities, and architectural sectors, as well as on the ever-broadening choice of ‘green solutions’ available from suppliers of everything from solar panelling to reed-based dwellings.

Many larger hospitals are sprawling complexes with endless corridors and rooms of varying purpose. While cleanliness and infection control are, understandably, leading considerations in any hospital building, fire safety also plays a crucial role.

With more and more care expected to be delivered from community settings and in patients’ homes in coming years, Ian Jackson, MD at specialist IT service provider, Imerja, considers how technologies like telemedicine, remote diagnostics, and videoconferencing, and even pills fitted with microchips and antennae to alert medics remotely when the patient swallows them, could potentially transform healthcare in the future.

Against a backdrop where the Coalition Government has said more ‘value’ needs to be squeezed out of existing healthcare PFI projects, Karen Prosser, head of the health sector team at built asset consultancy, EC Harris, and Russell Gates, one of the company’s partners on the same team, set out some of the key elements that NHS Trusts with operational PFI contracts should consider when undertaking a contract savings review.