Hospitals

The development and challenges in hospital engineering

In this article, we will learn about the latest and most important developments in hospital engineering, how they are changing the healthcare landscape and what challenges and challenges lie ahead for the industry.

Hospital engineering is a discipline that combines engineering, architecture and medicine. It is a constantly evolving field whose main objective is to improve efficiency and safety, as well as the comfort of patients and medical staff in hospitals. Globally, great advances have been made in this area in recent decades. Let us look at some of them in detail.

TN electrical systems: features, types and TN-S networks in hospital electrical installations

In this article, we would like to address the more technical side of some of the best electrical safety solutions for hospitals and their critical areas. This is the case of TN electrical systems. We will discover what they consist of, what differentiates them from other TT systems and we will delve into the virtues of TN-S networks for electrical installations in hospitals.

Connectors and sockets are key to creating an equipotential bonding to the ground, which helps to avoid touch voltages in critical medical areas.

Therefore, equipotential grounding is an elementary part of safe electrical installation for critical medical environments. These ground connections systems are suitable for surgical units, ICU and in general for critical medical areas.

The SDGs and the health sector: challenges and opportunities

A natural consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic has been that the focus of attention has turned to the health sector, which has been more prominent than ever in recent times. The relevance of SDG 3 on health and wellbeing, which we will discuss in depth below, means that the health sector is in a time of vigilance, but also of opportunities linked to digitalisation, innovation and new technologies.

In short, in this post we want to delve into the relationship between the SDGs and the health sector, learning first-hand what they are and to what extent they influence the current and future health sector landscape.

The importance of colour in hospitals

Chromotherapy is a branch of medical science that deals with healing through colour. It is a concept that is more than proven with facts and, in fact, no building can be fully functional and suitable if it is not designed and decorated in an optimal way.

In this post, we are going to learn more about the importance of colour in hospitals, what are the main tones used depending on the room and what is achieved with each of them.

Switch boxes and medical gas intakes

Within the hospital safety systems and the proper functioning of each health centre, switch boxes and medical gas inlets are two of the fundamental elements for the correct and gradual administration of medical gases.

The reason is twofold: first, to guarantee and ensure the correct supply in the event of a breakdown of one of the lines and for maintenance reasons. And then, so that there is always a line in operation when a part of the lines needs to be repaired or gas cylinders need to be replaced.

In this post, we are going to find out what they are and what their characteristics are.

The Lean Healthcare method in healthcare management

In recent years, organisations in the global healthcare sector have opted to apply the tools of the Lean Management methodology with the aim of improving healthcare processes and the results of their daily operations, both in terms of health and in terms of optimising available resources and capacity by reducing and eliminating waste. In this post, we would like to explain what Lean Healthcare is, what its objectives and benefits are and how it is applied to the healthcare system.

The Lean method consists of the search for continuous improvement in processes in order to achieve the best quality while minimising costs, with the patient as the pivot from which everything else revolves.

The Scrum methodology in the hospital sector

The Scrum methodology ensures that the company focuses on what is most important at all times and as quickly as possible.

When launching a project, any organisation, in our case any healthcare centre, must ensure that the team involved knows its tasks and deadlines. Scrum is a framework that helps us to achieve this and, at the same time, speed up the delivery of value to the client.

Scrum, in practice, encourages teams to learn through experiences, to self-organise while tackling a problem, and to reflect on their victories and defeats in order to continuously improve.

Towards the perfect hospital

Hospitals that do not look like refrigerators or cold and grey mega-constructions, warm, spacious, well-lit healthcare centres with large windows and a welcoming décor, comfortable rooms for both staff and patients and their families, and adequate and renovated hospital equipment.

This is what the public, patients, healthcare professionals and the sector in general have been looking for in recent years. It is the most common request in search of the perfect hospital. That ideal place for which there is still a long way to go…

So how can we achieve the perfect hospital? Or at least, health centres that respond to the requests and needs not only of today, but of the future. These are some of the keys, methods and trends that can be followed, both for hospital equipment and for improving rooms, wards, areas, floors, environments, etc.

Batteries and emergency power supply units in hospitals: what you need to know

For decades, the implementation of technology in the different spheres of human life has transformed the way we consume, relate to each other and live. It has certainly transformed it for the better. After all, a priori, technology makes our lives easier. However, as we use more and more electronic systems in our daily lives, we also become more energy dependent.

That is why, in a field such as healthcare, the use of batteries for emergency supply units in hospitals is essential to guarantee permanent access to the power supply, even in the most complicated situations or in exceptional events that may cause, for example, power cuts.

Today we want to address the importance of batteries and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) for the proper functioning of the healthcare system.

Data networks in hospitals

The daily life of hospitals and any type of health centre is mainly focused on patient medical care. However, beyond people, there are also a series of factors that are part of hospital management and that we cannot ignore.

One of the elements that has gained the most weight recently has been that related to sensitive data that is collected in hospitals and health centres and that, although indirectly, also contributes to good patient care and proper functioning both from a medical and organizational point of view. For example: hospital data networks. Let’s talk about all of this in this article.