IBI Group Develops Comprehensive Framework to Support Frontline Healthcare Workers
Date
April 21, 2020
In order to adequately service the growing number of patients impacted by the virus, existing healthcare facilities must be reorganized to optimize bed counts and available space. Our team of healthcare experts has collaborated with hospitals to identify opportunities to add additional beds to less-trafficked areas, including operating theatres, outpatient and waiting areas, and emergency departments. We’ve also leveraged our expertise to help hospitals establish COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patient flows to ensure that all service users are receiving care in a safe and controlled environment.
In addition to reconfiguring existing treatment spaces, there is an urgent need to design and operate temporary treatment facilities. The first step in this complex expansion is using real-time data to understand where and when expansion should take place. To do this, IBI’s parametric design team developed a capacity model that enables decision makers to make the best use of available data so that they can effectively plan the rapid expansion of temporary hospitals.
Our model uses existing COVID-19 case projections and the best available hospital data to provide insights on capacity and resource planning, both present and future, and supports the strategic expansion of a network of temporary facilities by identifying where and when new treatment centres should be built, how they should be staffed, and what volume of medical equipment will be required.
In recent weeks, we have designed provisional care centres with the requisite power and water supplies to service the overflow of COVID-19 patients. To do this, we developed an 11-step, streamlined process for converting now-empty exhibition halls, stadiums, warehouses, and retail spaces into functional treatment facilities. This process can be executed in as little as four weeks, and designed specifically to reflect local requirements and opportunities for implementation.
Our approach relies on collaboration with local authorities and IBI Group’s InForm solution, which our clients can use to store and access information in a centralized location throughout the planning and operating stages. Additionally, we’ve supported healthcare organisations with a series of ‘orientation videos’ that enable staff to understand the layout of the new facility in advance of arrival, which proves vital to ensuring the facility is operational quickly.
COVID-19 has also presented opportunities to develop a network of supporting services that will ease the burden on the healthcare system today, and provide lasting benefits for communities in the future. Alongside our clients, we’ve developed a number of innovative solutions, including establishing testing facilities in now-vacant parking lots and leveraging airports and airport hotels as quarantine facilities for returning citizens. We are also assisting our clients to identify opportunities within their existing projects to incorporate interim solutions to increase capacity that can later be used to service new patient or provider needs.
Pictured above: Conversion of Swansea Bay Studios on behalf of Swansea Bay University Health Board and Swansea Council
Pictured below: IBI Group’s healthcare capacity model, using data from Los Angeles County
View our Healthcare Framework Infographic HERE.
For more information, please contact rapid.deploy.health@oujchfm.com.
