Group A Week 9 Story Post - Teaching Hospital

Group A:

Mark Odorizzi, Sarina Tufano, Dung Tran, Nay Ye Oo (Sonny), Alyssia Deutsch, Kerry Milligan

The Prologue:

Discussion of the current hospital situation - and the shortcomings that will be solved by an intelligent building

This story begins at a run down teaching hospital named “The Rickety”. Every doctor, nurse, intern, patient and visitor have been slightly creeped out by the small corridors, the uneven temperature distribution and the lack of new technologies. The lights were always flickering, making anyone in their presence feel uncomfortable. Those systems that did work, made erie noises and thumped randomly at any given time, but highly prefered to do so in the dead of night. Since this building was constructed before codes had been renewed, not many rooms had significant means of egress or sufficient natural lighting which only added to the sinister aura the building gave off.

In an effort to correct all of the dilemmas faced by this building and its occupants, a team of an architect, engineers, project managers, maintenance crews and hospital personnel got together and made a list of all their individual needs:

“WE NEED MORE ROOM!” - Dr. Milligan shouted

“WE NEED SENSORS TO REGULATE THE AIR QUALITY” - Mech. Engineer

“WE NEED A DATABASE TO KEEP OUR RECORDS” - Medical Students

“WE NEED UTILITIES THAT DON’T BREAK EVERY DAY” - Maintenance Head

“WE NEED QUIETER HVAC!” - Surgeons

“WE NEED FASTER WIFI” - EVERYONE

“WE NEED MORE MOTION SENSORS” - Dr. Milligan requested

“WE NEED MORE VIDEO SURVEILLANCE” - Project Manager   

“WE NEED MORE EASE OF ACCESS” - Architect

“WE NEED MORE LIGHT!” - Owners

“WE NEED CHEAPER BILLS!” - Maintenance Head

The hospital employee stakeholders in this story are Dr Milligan (because he was living through the issues and has the most knowledge about what a better space would look like), the project manager (in order to handle all of the differing inputs from the stakeholders, Sarina is needed to represent the hospital as a whole and keep the project on track), and the maintenance officials (Dung is the one who deals with the hospital facilities on a daily basis, and has input on how to best design the new space with maintenance considerations in mind and deals with the creepy doctor who complains about everything).

The non-hospital employee stakeholders in this story include the engineers (Structural: Mark wants to make sure the hospital is structurally sound to handle the heavy equipment and unpredictable live loads), the code compliance consultants (Hospitals have intricate codes applied to them, so Sonny is here to make sure we stick to those codes and provide a safe and acceptable working environment) and the construction management team (Foreman Rizzi needs to make sure the construction does not interfere with existing hospital operations, while still being efficient and on time and budget).

The Fix:

Discussion of the steps taken towards developing an intelligent building and how the new technologies will benefit the occupants/stakeholders.

Many new technologies will be implemented in this hospital so that it can provide a better work and teaching environment. These include code analysis for design and renovation, many types of sensors for occupancy evaluations, a structural/MEP BIM model for programming and design processes, a building program database for better record keeping easier programming and occupational evaluations, as well as robotics for construction methods and acoustic analysis for renovational aids.

To better be able to ventilate and heat/cool the hospital, a new high efficiency HVAC system will be installed. Since many patients and doctors are easily lost track of within the hospital, motion sensors and camera equipment will be installed. Along with that, databases will assist in record keeping methods that are highly effective and user friendly. Additionally, rooms will be made slightly more spacious and more windows will be incorporated with additions being rendered through BIM and all of its associating counterparts within the new model’s operation and functions. This will cause the hospital to become much more efficient in its teaching methods, which will gain it more patients and result in more money which can pay for the best hospital equipment and doctors to keep teaching new interns. Overall, the stakeholders will get large payoffs over the years following this renovation, the patients will become much more comfortable, and the hospital employees will be provided with a much better environment in which to work on a daily basis. In the end, this hospital will also have a much more pleasant facade and no longer be considered the creepy hospital it was once known for.