استنباط معايير تصميمية لوحدات العناية المركزة . دراسة تحليلة للمستشفيات بالمملكة العربية السعودية

Abstract

The twenty first century witnesses a huge development in the technology of medical appliances and equipment's; which causes a tremendous jump in ways of diagnosis and treatment. This subsequently necessitates a change in the design concept of hospital, to accommodate the changes, which result from the nature, sizes, shapes and function of the new systems. It is felt necessary to establish and shape certain design standards for each specialized department in the hospital, by which, maximum level of flexibility could be achieved and spaces could be shaped to absorb any further possible developments. Despite the variety and complications of departments and types and classes of hospital; this research is confined to a detailed study of the intensive care unit (I.C.U). The researcher is concerned about the type of design standards which provide the best environment for users (patients, doctors, nurses, technicians, workers and visitors as well). The study started with a theoretical base for identifying the concept of hospital building and its development through history till it reached its present shape and status, with all complications and interaction of its different departments and of their functional relationships. The research emphasized and explained the standards of components and items of the intensive care unit. This is done through field survey carried out in a number of hospitals in the eastern region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The responses to the questionnaire, distributed among doctors, nurses and technicians, patients, and patients-attendants, when analyzed resulted in clear guide to the standards that could be adopted by hospitals authority in the kingdom when establishing intensive care units. It is clear, through comparison, that the established suggested standards deviate a lot from those adopted by the western world. The deviations are mainly related to the environmental conditions of the region, and to a wider extent, with the social, cultural and religious background of the population.