Proposed Topic (Most preferred): :
Research and Innovations (new projects / technology / innovations / service models)
Authors (including presenting author) :
Holmes MLH (1)
Affiliation :
(1) Jacobs Solutions
Introduction :
Singapore, like many countries, is experiencing a rapidly aging population and growing demand on the public health system. Concurrently, there is a decreasing supply of healthcare workers in the nation which has led to a proposed restructure of public healthcare delivery.
Alexandra Hospital's (AH) expansion seeks to innovate the Singapore healthcare system and find a new way to address future health demands. There are three key areas of innovation in the project.
Model of care change
Pandemic planning
Construction Standardisation
Objectives :
Model of care change
A patient’s journey in Singapore is often comprised of seeing multiple specialists, being moved across different hospital departments, and transferring between acute and community hospitals depending on their needs. This journey can cause difficulties in information transfer, delays, and suboptimal care.
the project proposes a patient-centred model of care with the ethos “One patient, One bed, One care team, One principal doctor, One with the community, Healthcare redesign” (“OOOOOH”). This sees the patient at the centre of the wellness journey and influences different health planning strategies.
Additionally, the caregiver’s role as the ‘invisible workforce’ is prioritised in the health planning by providing significant amenity like family respite spaces which is intended to alleviate pressure on the workforce.
Pandemic planning
Two factors that exacerbate Singapore’s requirement to flexibly accommodate a ‘pandemic mode’ at Alexandra Hospital. Firstly, Changi airport is in the world’s top 10 busiest airports, and secondly, Singapore is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, both influencing the speed at which an epidemic could be introduced and spread throughout the country. Alexandra Hospital is designed to accommodate a number of stages of pandemic readiness;
• A command centre to identify potential pandemic risk and control patient demand throughout facility,
• Space provision for mass screening and entry point control,
• Prioritising integrated green spaces for natural ventilation as well as mental wellness
• Technological innovations for hospital deliveries and cleaning
Construction Standardisation
With a hospital of this size, it’s crucial to develop elements of standardization to improve buildability and effectively manage the project budget. The Building and Construction Authority in Singapore enforces a legislated buildability and constructability appraisal system in an effort to respond to the challenges of the availability of construction labour as well as reducing construction time. The appraisal system enforces standardisation across the delivery of all infrastructure projects and has assisted Singapore in developing a supply chain aligned to rapid project delivery.
Learning from AH
Singapore’s healthcare system challenges reflect the complex issues many nations experience with aging populations and decreasing healthcare staff, and these innovations provide learning opportunities for health systems around the world.
Methodology :
the method brings together processes from co-design, medical planning, and architecture, clinical expertise to deliver evidence-based, end-user-engaged innovation in healthcare design. To provide a framework to meaningfully engage end-users through design-based processes. In this project, we defined what success would look like in partnership with clinicians, medical planners, and designers, to identify and confirm what success would look like, ranging from inclusive geriatric environments, and pandemic responsiveness through to speed of project delivery.
We co-created a user brief to inform the environments and services to support the future integrated general care model.
Result & Outcome :
The new designs are being continuously evaluated by clinicians, medical planners, architects, and designers to deliver a healthcare facility that brings together new ways of clinical service delivery, integrating the family and caregiver into the care pathway whilst being pandemic-responsive and delivered quickly.
