Case Study
Divisional Railway Hospital NCR-Agra
The hospital has only ground floor which includes Operation Theaters, Male Ward, Female Ward, Admin Block, General Ward, Canteen, Doctor’s cabin, Orthopedic, Medicine, Emergency Ward, Isolation wards etc.
There were several major challenges during the implementation of Green Features on site and lot of hurdles initially during on site implementation which was really fruitful in the end.
Divisional Railway Hospital team has provided several green features in hospital building like universal design for differently abled, EV charging points, House Keeping Eco Friendly Chemical, Biomedical & Dry/Wet Waste Management, Green Education Signage’s, solar power, water efficient fixtures and so on. The major challenges were as follows.
Rain Water Harvesting:
The project is built up in the year 1967 which did not have rain water harvesting system by design. Retrofitting of the RWH system had become all the way more challenging when project wants to capture entire roof and non-roof rain water through the channels. In short, there were challenges like, site availability, design of channels, storm water layout, rain water pit design & development & target time.
After studying the layout & contour plans, it is noticed that rear side of the building will be best for the proposed Rain Water Harvesting Pits. Its slope is good & the appropriate open area is available for the necessary civil work & installation. The storm water channel has been laid down maintaining the flow towards the circular pit with the diameter of 2.5 meter & 30 meter deep. The total capacity of three pit is 289.7 cubic meter of water recharge.
The roof water collected through pipes to proper drain channels as shown in image. The roof storm water will also get captured with the network of GI pipes & will be diverted to RWH pit through Storm water channel.
Fresh air provision
The other major problem is absence of fresh air provision in regularly occupied areas especially doctor’s cabin which was a much needed requirement for adequate ventilation system. The biggest challenge was civil work including installation of fresh air fans and the concern of increase in the air conditioning load due to infiltration of fresh air through opening which will obviously not good for energy efficiency aspect of building.
After long sessions of meetings and incorporating the fresh air fans installation which ensures proper infection control and patient safety, very less impact on energy consumption with proper wooden cover and flap to ensure any air leakage and calculated desired size (CFM) of fresh air fan. The fresh air fans of size 250 CFM – 400 CFM installed in all regularly occupied areas as per standards.
HEPA Filter in Operation theater:
Hospital has two operation theatres equipped with split air conditioning having no fresh air provision. The Hospital team used to do Sterilization on regular basis which is a process in which all microorganisms including bacterial spores are destroyed completely by using Formaldehyde fumigation. The major challenge here is to convince team of doctors for any civil work in OT along with the opening/cutout permission for HEPA Filter with fresh air fans.
After studying design concepts in operation theatre layout, pressurization and ventilation, particularly the evolvement of ultra-clean ventilation. The civil work has been carried out one by one in each OT provided fresh air fans of 2000 CFM systematically along with HEPA filter as per ASHRAE 62.1 and 170 standards. HEPA filtration in operating rooms of a healthcare facility providing the highest quality of air hygiene, helping safeguard the life and wellbeing of the patients and the healthcare workers.
Stress Relieving space:
Nurses, doctors and other medical professionals, who works long hours at a high-stress job is vulnerable. The provision and identifying the stress relieving space for indoor games, library and outdoor games like badminton court was a major challenge. Another challenge is awareness towards the importance of this space for hospital staff.
After detailed site inspection and reviewing plans, a room identified as a stress relieving space having proper ventilation along with outdoor view on the rear side of the hospital green area. Also, awareness program organized by consultant to ensure hospital staff understand that they may experience trauma while on the job due to exposure of profoundly affecting incidents and it is very beneficial for them to have such facilities.
Patient centric healing garden:
The hospital has only one common garden for staff, medical professional and patient’s relatives instead availability of around 65% open area of total site area. Incorporating the dedicated healing garden for patients was another major challenge as it requires civil work which results into dust emissions and degrades the air quality which is truly not acceptable especially in hospital. Summarily, the crucial challenges were to overcome from dust emissions and identify the location for healing garden.
The best suited location for healing garden that being decisive was near hospital second entrance with majorly two advantages – one is straight way towards patient wards to easy access and somehow distant from admin block and staff offices to avoid interaction. The civil work has been done using dust suppression measures like sprinkling of water to prevent liftoff of dust from stockpiles and in less occupancy hours like in late evening. Patient centric healing garden form a social atmosphere and has positively affect the clinical results of the patients through reducing stress, and thus they enable patients to feel themselves good psychologically.