Prototype of Covid-19 Test Station For Outdoor facility

Background

Worldwide, hospitals are facing acute challenges in responding to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic since its occurrence in late 2019. Sample taking and testing are currently the only way to observe, document, and understand the pandemic and its dispersal. It is an essential approach in the fight to slow down the propagation and fight the effects of the virus. Identifying infected people enables them to get the medical treatment they need and allocate medical resources and staff more efficiently. Testing for COVID-19 also provides insight into understanding the pandemic and the associated risks in different population groups. While hospital designs do not provide for spatial separation, medical staff must rely on personal protective equipment (PPE), ensuring they are not infected while treating potentially affected patients. With the worldwide pandemic, the need for PPE has risen sharply with the resulting shortcomings in the supply, increasing costs, and a rise in generating hazardous waste.

With the growing need for conducting patient examination and sample taking, there is an urgent demand for an isolated facility solution that allows hospitals to avoid overcrowding of existing facilities and separate general hospital operations to protect other staff and patients from contamination. These units also need to ensure the protection of the affected operating medical staff and potentially infected patients from virus spread.

Moreover,

Research Objective

The objective of this research is thus to develop architectural design solutions through the method of adaptation and development of existing solutions for virus testing facilities into flexible modular units that are capable of suiting the context of hospitals in Thailand in terms of local conditions and budget limitations. Selected consultations with medical doctors and related experts further support the development of the test-station design. The most primary objective of this design research, however, is to protect healthcare workers from coronavirus infection while doing their job related to the sample taking of possible infected patients, and to mitigate further the possible disease spread among patients. Thus, proposing viable design solutions for the examination, sample taking, consultation and further processes related to the evolutionary phases of the pandemic. Consequently, the established design criteria of the test-station are:

• the application of social distancing into a COVID-19 test-station facility and the mitigation of possible virus spread through possible airborne and contact transfer
• the creation of a remotely usable medical facility for COVID-19 screening, examination, sample taking and medical consultation,
• the implementation of suitable air handling surrounding both user types
• the fulfillment of given standard operating procedures for conducting sample taking and sample processing
• the provision of a modular design variety in response to different infrastructure, location, and size requirements
• the provision of flexible usage of the test station in reflection to possible development phases of the pandemic.

The aim is therefore to

• prevent potentially affected patients from visiting hospitals directly. By having the design anticipated to be installed in outdoor or semi-outdoor settings, it will reduce the risk of endangering stationary patients and medical staff in the hospital to be contaminated
• integrate existing or proposed standard operating methods for collecting a specimen from patients by medical staff at the least risk, comply to standards of specimen storage, and prevent the proliferation of germs.
• consider and define the need for air handling in all areas
• identify the entire process of conducting examination and sample taking and integrate it into the design. This includes the arrival of patients to the medical facility, the need for registration and screening, waiting, examination, and sampling, which, in addition to the current swap test, may require different modus operandi in the future. Further, the follow-up of the test results and the inclusion of also necessary measures, and
• provide a flexible, sturdy, reusable, yet cost-effective solution.

Prototype

A prototype construction is planned as a collaboration to exchange expertise and knowledge between three professions, namely architects + civil engineers + experts in medical care:

• Architects determine the needs and proportions of suitable areas for spatial planning and use.
• Civil engineers

• for structural considerations such as structural integrity, mobility requirements, efficient and flexible installation at different locations and connection to needed infrastructure
• and HVAC considerations such as air supply, air removal and filtering

• and medical knowledge to ensure the adequate measures protect staff and patients and follow given standard operating procedures

Methodology

The cooperation with healthcare, building, and HVAC experts provide that the final design of the test station and the constructed prototype for semi-outdoor solutions are considered safe, operational, and suitable for implementation near healthcare facilities. Ensuring the test-stations can be transported, installed, and necessary infrastructure in terms of electrical power supply can be provided, the test station is a possible solution for the required spatial separation. In addition to considering low construction costs, such a solution offers a low risk of contamination for the operating personnel and, at the same time, reduces the need for continuous wearing of protective equipment.

To further improve the design, future research and development foresees a post-implementation review to document its project implementation, operation, and functional survey.