Good Example Of Essay On Development Of Healthcare Facilities Design Tools And Principles

Development of buildings design tools, policies, and guidelines

Sophistication of healthcare facilities makes it difficult to establish protocols for green buildings. That is because it requires the application of quantifying of a high-performance environment requires essential design tools. (Douglas & Douglas, 2004) However, Guenther and Vittori (2008) provides an overview of how the tools have been developed over time. They begin with the time when there were no systems to gauge buildings performance. They also cover the transformation process to date when various design tools, policies, and principles are available and acts as a basis for evaluating buildings performance and enhancing healthcare facilities healing environment.
Sustainable tools, principles and policies development began in 1990 as a means of promoting planning, design, development and construction. By the time, there were no green building tools that were specific to healthcare facilities. Thus, the tools development began in 1990 when US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded Institute of Architect's Committee for the purpose of developing green buildings guidelines. That marked the beginning of tools and guidelines development with the first being the Environmental Resource Guide (AIA 1996) that was published in 1992. (Guenther & Vittori, 2008)
In respect to the early rating tools, Guenther and Vittori (2008) describes the first rating tool as The City of Austin Green Building program that was developed in 1989and that was meant to extend the green building metrics beyond energy performance to waste, water and materials in a life-cycle context. That was followed by development of another assessment program; BREAM as the first environmental assessment tool developed in UK that was used internationally and which has become the model for development of other international tools.
In US, professionals came together and undertook an assessment of practices that would support adoption of green building technologies, policies, and practices. That resulted in the development of LEED as an independent rating system. The system is described as certification system that is applied to verifying achievement as well as a point based tool for defining sustainable design’s best practice. That marked the onset of using standardized testing methodology for sustainable designs. The systems success owes to its qualities of simplicity and being a brand approved by various building design stakeholders. Its success was also driven by its ability to certify buildings at different levels ranging from basic to platinum. (Reiling, Hughes & Murphy, 2008)
With the initial tools and guidelines, there was market transformation by onset f the new millennium. That was marked by increased use of tools such as LEED that was further customized for specific buildings and sectors. That was followed by increased focus on healthcare building’s environment that marked the beginning of the green building concept in healthcare. However, the author’s identify that there was a lag in the tools adoption within the healthcare sector. Thus, the continued transformation has resulted in the development of comprehensive guides to green buildings for healthcare that focus on reducing health and environmental burdens in developing healthcare facilities. (Guenther & Vittori, 2008)
In that view, the author’s covers the development of design tools, policies and guidelines from the beginning and their adoption for healthcare facilities. The description has is crucial to understanding how the policies and tools have been adapted for sector-specific considerations such as in addressing building environment for the purpose of enhancing healthcare services delivery and efficiency. The authors have also demonstrated how the policies have been crucial in the development of assessment tools and metrics essential for the development of healthcare facilities. (Knutt, 2005)

References

Douglas, H. & Douglas, R. (2004). Patient-friendly hospital environments: exploring the
Patients’ perspective. Health Expect. 7, 61-78.
Guenther, R. & Vittori, G. (2008). Sustainable Healthcare Architecture. New Jersey: Wiley.
Knutt, E. (2005). Healthcare design: Build for the future. Health Service Journal. 115(5940),
35–7.
Reiling, J., Hughes, G. & Murphy, M. (2008). Patient Safety and Quality: Evidence-
Based Handbook for Nurses. Rockville: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.