December 14, 2011

Canadian Standards Association releases hospital construction protocol

KELLY LAPOINTE

staff writer

Bad hospital design can kill.

In an effort to improve the Canadian health-care environment, such as controlling the spread of infection, CSA Standards has released Health Care Facilities Standard , the first national standard in Canada that addresses planning, design, and construction of new health care facilities.

Michael Keen, technical committee chair for health-care facilities at CSA and director of planning at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, said with new medications, new technology, and new equipment, the landscape of health care is constantly changing.

He said there was a big construction boom in health-care facilities about 50 years ago, but there hasn’t been much investment over the last number of decades.

“What we’re seeing now is recognition by our governments across the country that this gap does exist. So we’re seeing an unprecedented level of investment in health-care infrastructure recently,” he said.

Prior to the launch, there was no common national standard for the design and construction of hospitals and other healthcare facilities. CSA has had standards in health-care facilities for more than 40 years, but they have been component standards, such as plumbing standards or infection control standards. This is the first overall, all-encompassing standard for health-care facilities.

The standard contains measures to help improve workflow, reduce the spread of infection, plan for pandemics and large-scale emergencies, address the complexities of moving and caring for obese patients, improve security surrounding newborns and provide better care for the elderly and those with dementia.

The new standard ensures that the money being spent is spent in the proper places, explained Keen.

“It ensures that at least a minimum level of quality is standard in the construction of health care facilities. Previously that quality had been left up to the expertise of the individual hospital.”

He said government expertise use to be available but it’s no longer there due to downsizing. Though there is a significant amount for investment in new health care facilities, most of the health-care facilities in the country will remain in use. The standards will apply to any major renovations.

The standard also provides principles of what the building and design materials could be. Keen said they want to allow designers some freedom and that new materials should be washable and are ones that do not encourage the growth of bacteria and micro-organisms. Many of the new standard’s practices don’t have costs though some do.

“The feeling is that the up-front cost is very small in comparison with the long-term life of the health-care facility or the risk of any type of detrimental effects,” he said.

“One hospital-acquired infection that results in a death could erase all the cost that you put into your health care facility on the construction side. It’s very small compared to what the impact is.”

With the release of these standards, health-care facilities can now show those in charge of funding what is takes to at least achieve the minimum standard.

“Before, different provinces and different health-care facilities would argue about different design details as to whether they were appropriate or not. They both have a guide now as to what is important.”

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