ENGINEERING
Engineering in Health Care Facility Design Understanding an important role BY BRENT WAVRA, PE – MECHANICAL ENGINEER
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o help understand engineering in health care, it’s helpful to compare it to the human body. Each health care facility has a skeletal system which is the building structure, internal organs are like the mechanical / plumbing system, nervous system is comparable to the electrical / IT systems, and think of the skin as the walls that hold it all inside. The consulting engineer’s responsibility is to ensure that all systems are designed to allow the building to become alive after construction is complete. Just like every person is unique, each health care facility is unique. Strong communication skills are the key to success when it comes to designing a new building or remodeling an existing health care space.
Engineering in Health Care We start with the end in mind–each health care facility operates with its own idiosyncrasies that make up its unique nature and culture. As consulting engineers, it’s imperative we understand from the start what the stakeholders’ needs are when it comes to the day-to-day operations of their facility. We must also discuss the facility’s operational goals, energy use, care team function and overall patient satisfaction objectives.
Input from facility staff and stakeholders is valuable information as we start to lay out our system designs. Architects provide detailed renderings of different areas of the building, e.g., layouts of patient rooms, operating rooms and lobbies based on heavy input from the stakeholder group. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) consulting engineers need similar guidance. For example, we need to know how the medical gases will be arranged on the headwall within a patient room, the preferred location of a med gas alarm panel, the optimal temperature setting in an operating room, emergency power needs for outlets, preferred equipment manufacturers–all of which make the workspace tailored to the needs of staff for an efficient and functional environment. The character of a health care space is typically determined by what you see and physically identify within the facility. Elements like window locations, wall color, artwork and space layout tend to be the items that influence perception of the facility by patients and health care workers. However, nearly 40% of the building is located behind the walls, above the ceiling or in hidden utility spaces that have a higher impact on care, but have a less tangible impact on a person’s perception of the facility. The mechanical and electrical systems determine temperature, humidity, air
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OCTOBER 2021 MINNESOTA PHYSICIAN
