"The ART OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENT & FURNITURE PLANNING" Volume1 is the result of a cumulative
compilation of technical experience and field feed back that Universal Hospital
Services (UHS) has accrued over the past 25 years.
The idea of creating a reference manual was, at its conception, an attempt at an
in-house standardization process of our own work. The project grew to attain a life
of its own as we realized that this standardization is lacking across the board
in our sub-specialty.
In the past, this lack of standard information has usually prompted hospital planners
to seek medical equipment manufacturers in order to carry equipment planning, each
according to his specific product line.
Alternatively, the planner would have had to go through a haphazard process of data gathering and blind application that was
usually harbinger of costly design mistakes and irrecoverable ground work errors.
The major in-house debate which ensued upon embarking on this project was whether
the production of such a book will be detrimental to UHS work and business in general,
for the simple fact that UHS offers equipment planning services as its core business
service.
We have finally opted that the luxury of information should not be boxed and monopolized
but rather disseminated for the benefit of those who share our vision in attaining
the highest standards in the field of hospital and medical equipment planning. Finally,
the decision to produce the book was ultimately taken, and fulltime staff was allocated
to start the arduous and challenging task of compiling this book.
The ultimate objective of this book and its future volumes is to offer Healthcare
Facility & Medical Equipment Planners, Architects, Engineers, Students, Ministries
of Health and Universities a single source reference, and an easy to use planning
tool. The global economic benefit and savings of accurately using the information
in this book is invaluable. For it is a well recognized reality that the cost of
reconstruction and modifications due to planning mistakes is proportionally exponential
if compared to the cost of proper planning.
We have organized this book into chapters addressing the major departments in a
standard general hospital or out patient healthcare facility. The dimensions indicated
on the room layouts, indicate the minimum space and dimensional requirements for
proper equipment and furniture planning, allowing adequate circulation and space.
The utilities and service needs indicated address a substantial cross section of
the medical equipment used in the industry today.
The dimensions however, are not absolute, and it will be left to the project Architect,
the project's special needs and the end user's needs to revise and change, while
at all times respecting the minimum requirements if possible.
The equipment lists presented in the layouts indicate the major items required to
deem the room functional and up to par in terms of space and utility requirements.
We recognize that medical equipment technology is ever changing. As well, we acknowledge
that medical equipment space and utility requirements for some new technologies
might consequently change. Consequently, future revisions of this Book will take
into consideration those new developments, whether in space or equipment.
The images included in this book either a courtesy of some manufacturers or royalty
free images, serve the purpose of providing, maximizing and enhancing the dimensional
ability of the user in better envisaging the engineering drawings.
Ultimately and most importantly, we hope that the benefits from this Book will globally
reach out to all healthcare planners, providers and quality care for patients. As
this endeavor is meant not only to guide, but also to complement the work of all
healthcare planners, we ask for your suggestions in better enhancing all future
editions of this work.
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