Improving Sustainability During Hospital Design and Operation

This book describes the Sustainable High Quality Healthcare (SustHealth) project, which had the goal of developing an original multidisciplinary evaluation tool that can be applied to assess and improve hospitals' overall sustainability. The comprehensive nature of the appraisal offered by this tool exceeds the scope of most current rating systems, which typically permit a thorough evaluation of relevant environmental factors when designing a new building but fail to consider social and economic impacts of the design phase or the performance of the hospital's operational structure in these fields. The multidisciplinary evaluation system was developed, from its very inception through to its testing, by following a scientific experimental method in which a global perspective was constantly maintained, as opposed to a focus only on specific technical issues. Application of the SustHealth rating tool to a currently functioning hospital, or one under design, will identify weaknesses and guide users to potential low-cost short-term solutions and longer-term strategies for improvement.

Presents an effective methodology for identifying shortcomings in a hospital's overall sustainability and low-cost remedial measures Covers social and economic as well as environmental aspects Includes tables of criteria and indicators for application in an evaluation at the design or operational stage Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Inhalt
Healthcare sustainability challenge.- Current scenario analysis.- Healthcare sustainability evaluation systems.- A multidisciplinary sustainable evaluation system for operative and in-design hospitals.- Economic Sustainability.- Social Sustainability.- Environmental Sustainability.- Testing the SustHealth evaluation system.