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Published on: October 3, 2016
An isolation ward's architectural blueprint for prompt infectious disease prevention
Xingwei Xiang1, Bifeng Zhu2,3, Xiaoxia Bai1
1School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China.
Background:
The community epidemic prevention in the post COVID-19 requires the prevention to respond quickly to changes in the epidemic and immediately initiate on-site isolation. A system for rapid prevention and control of infectious diseases is built systematically, forming a comprehensive epidemic prevention method, and to achieve the application of the system by proposing a new architecture scheme (isolation wards).
Methods:
The paper starts from the theoretical framework of epidemic prevention across preventive medicine, architecture, and mechanical engineering. Through interviews with medical staff in healthcare institutions and preventive medicine experts in public health institutions, the Grounded theory is used to deeply analyze the composition system and key factors.
Results:
The architectural blueprint is composed of community epidemic prevention as the core, consisting of physical realization & supply system, preventive medicine system, and spatial & functional system. The study identified eight major influencing factors related to the isolation and epidemic prevention system, including the application scenarios and management considerations of isolation wards within communities, the relationship between isolation wards and surrounding community environments and facilities, as well as key aspects of manufacturing and implementation technologies for isolation wards. The small foldable isolation ward will serve as the core material carrier of the prevention system, mainly composed of three key elements: support structure, use unit, and equipment support.
Conclusions:
The realization criteria, multi-unit combinations, application scenarios and distribution models of isolation wards are also explored. The proposed plan of interdisciplinary collaboration significantly boosts the overall performance of the isolation program and overcomes challenges that community epidemic prevention and control face.
Clinical Trial Number:
Not applicable.
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