UNI has published the UNI 11993 standard “Hospitals and healthcare facilities – Terms and definitions” which defines a glossary on hospital and healthcare facilities.One of the primary rights of citizens is undoubtedly the right to health, and the structures dedicated to this— hospitals, community centers, day centers, hospices, and other types of social and healthcare facilities —are architecturally complex and multifaceted.
Their complexity lies not only in the function they perform, but also in the organization of the spaces .
Among the most complex structures are certainly hospitals, which have dedicated spaces for both specialist visits and for operations and hospitalization.
The users are made up of patients and caregivers, as well as patients of preventive and predictive medicine.
Furthermore, through awareness-raising and health promotion policies, citizens are increasingly aware of their rights and the importance of taking care of themselves – in a dimension of physical, psychological, mental and social well-being – and consequently their expectations towards healthcare services and health facilities are increasingly higher.
Unfortunately, in some cases these expectations are disappointed by structures still shaped by outdated care processes.
All this entails the need to define a new organizational model that also takes into account the implications for the architecture of the designated spaces.
Thus was born Hospital Design, which conceives a new way of designing healthcare spaces.
In this context, UNI 11993 can provide a significant contribution.
Given the diversity of stakeholders involved in the design of healthcare spaces, this terminology standard aims to define a common, shared language to ensure the correct use of terms, promoting and facilitating interdisciplinary communication.
The standard was drafted by GL 34 “Hospitals and social-healthcare facilities,” which operates within UNI/CT 033 “Products, processes and systems for the building organism,” and involved the Design & Health Lab of the Polytechnic University of Milan with the support of the Joint Research Partnership Healthcare Infrastructure of the Politecnico Foundation, an initiative in which UNI is also a protagonist.
The methodology followed was developed in synergy with the “Next Generation Hospital” Working Group of the Alta Scuola Politecnica programme of the Polytechnic University of Milan and the Polytechnic University of Turin .
The standard now published covers the general terms of the hospital structure, and will be followed by other ad hoc standards relating to specific performance aspects.
To make our vision of a “well-made world” even more concrete and given the social and cultural significance of the standard, UNI 11993 is available for free consultation for a limited period , subject to registration HERE .
(Source: https://www.uni.com /)