According to the latest figures, the Covid 19 pandemic has taken over 155,000 lives in the UK alone. With different variants and no sign that the virus is ending, more medical services, such as isolation rooms, are required. However, suppose isolation rooms aren’t something your clinic has. In that case, perhaps a healthcare interior fit out is needed to meet more demands.
A medical fit out allows you to see infected patients safely. The risks to staff and other patients alike are reduced while offering complete service the same way as the rest of your practice.
What is a Medical Fit Out?
Like any establishment, a medical building has problems such as outdated design practices, degrading materials, and faulty electrics. So, a fit out might be necessary. Fitting out means changing the inside of a building to be safe for people.
A fit out typically includes:
> Interior walls and plastering
> Electrical repairs and improvements
> Floor resurfacing
> Lighting and decorations
> Mechanical fitting and installation such as X-Ray machines
> Required furnishings
Booking a healthcare interior fit out helps you repurpose your facility to handle any eventuality. Therefore, you can safely and confidently focus your efforts on treating your patients to higher standards. A fit out is complete as soon as the medical staff or patients can safely access the space.
Why You May Need a Fit Out
A healthcare interior fit out typically includes making a space habitable by people. And a full fit out can be complex or relatively simple depending on the circumstances. For instance, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, your medical office may remain essentially unchanged.
However, modular and bespoke isolation pods might be necessary to treat individuals safely or deliver much-needed vaccines and booster jabs. In essence, a fit out should outperform expectations while navigating and meeting your needs.
Using the Covid-19 pandemic as an example, The Royal College of General Practitioners recommends taking multiple things into account, such as ventilation, facilities and medical equipment. Further, it would help if you built such rooms to meet necessary medical practices and services.
It is also recommended that you provide more than one space. You must clean them after each use before seeing another patient. A reliable fit out designer like Architectural Wallsz can meet and exceed all necessary demands of a custom job.
Excellent for when you need to go a little further than simple social distancing.
The Benefits of a Fit Out
A fit out comes with many benefits, all of which aim to improve the safety and functionality of a specific space. While common issues are addressed, a healthcare interior fit out offers the distinct advantage of providing solutions to particular problems, such as seeing more infected patients.
Patient Well-Being
The structural and functional benefits of a fit out are well established. Yet the advantages of changing your medical clinic for the pandemic has far-reaching implications. A permanent or temporary medical fit out offers fully fitted isolation rooms that address all areas such as plumbing, ventilation, protection, examination and necessary equipment. Working as a fully functional yet separate safe space, patients can be isolated and protected for the safety of everyone in the building.
As a result, you reduce the chance of infection or negative criticism from medical inspection boards and patients alike.
Employee Well-Being
In the UK, some organisations offer at-work vaccinations and Covid testing. However, working in a medical setting and dealing with infected patients, your medical employees are at a higher risk than most. For example, the number of severe infections among healthcare workers is seven times higher than for non-essential workers. And the number of Covid-19 symptoms among other key workers was 60% higher.
These two demographics will likely meet each other. Therefore, as an employer of medical staff, you should welcome the isolation benefits a fit out can offer in addition to healthcare during Covid.
In Summary
To meet clinical needs, you must fit out healthcare interiors. An interior fit out refers to converting the inside of a building to make it safe for people to occupy. Modular and bespoke isolation pods, for example, might be necessary for the current Covid-19 situation to ensure patient safety and deliver vaccines and booster shots in relative safety.
Having a fit out enhances a space’s safety and functionality in many ways. For example, a temporary fit out comes with fully equipped isolation rooms that take care of everything from plumbing and ventilation to protection and equipment to examination. In addition, medical workers are seven times more likely to contract Covid-19, so a healthcare interior fit out is essential.