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Article-7: STUDY OF RELEVANCE OF RULE OF THUMB IN SPACIAL PLANNING IN A TEACHING HOSPITAL”

Article-7: STUDY OF RELEVANCE OF RULE OF THUMB IN SPACIAL PLANNING IN A TEACHING HOSPITAL”

2019 & 2020- Vol. 31 No.2 [June-Dec] & Vol. 32 No.1 [Jan-June]
 January 12, 2021
: “STUDY OF RELEVANCE OF RULE OF THUMB IN SPATIAL PLANNING IN A TEACHING HOSPITAL”
 
Corresponding Author - Assistant Professor, NITTE School of Architecture 
 
Abstract:
 
Planning spatial requirements for various services in relationship to the number of active beds in a hospital is a big challenge. Often it either falls short or excess for the workload.  Consequently former leads to deterioration in the quality of care, whereas later may lead to underutilisation of resources. With this in mind, critical analysis of defined space provided for various services in a tertiary care teaching hospital is done by measuring each area. This is expressed in Sq.ft/bed and is compared with the prevailing standard thumb rules of planning. For a 750 bedded facility with 85% occupancy, 630 Sqft/bed was the space provided with circulation space at 37% of the total usable area which are well within the recommended standards. On gross allocation of space, wards accounted for 45%, OPD 13%, Diagnostic/therapeutic area 18%, Services 13% and Administration @11%, of the total area. Comparing them to the standard guidelines, space provided was found adequate for all departments except area provided for services, which fell short by 5%. Space provided for CSSD, Laundry, Pharmacy, Dietary departments were 3.3, 3.7, 6 and 13.3Sqft./bed respectively.  This is much below the rule of thumb requirement of 6, 10, 9.4 and 15sqft/bed respectively for the above areas. This is evident by the acute shortage of space faced by these departments. Areas like Emergency, Pharmacy, MRD, Laboratory and Radiology witnessed rapid expansion in the last 10 years. Space provided for ambulatory care & diagnostic services were found to be 109 and 63 Sqft/bed; whereas, standards being 108 & 64.5 Sqft/bed respectively. Thus it is conclusive to say that prevailing standard rule of thumb is a useful tool while planning a hospital and in deciding where rapid expanding departments are to be located, so that further expansion is easily possible.
 
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