By Dan Hounsell

The pressure from COVID-19 finally seems to be easing at hospitals nationwide, and facility managers and their peers taking lessons from the pandemic related to hospital design are paying greater attention to preparations for the next pandemic.

Cameron Love, President and CEO of The Ottawa Hospital, says the pandemic has demonstrated the need for a hospital that can rapidly expand its intensive care services and has the physical infrastructure to curb the spread of a contagious, airborne virus, according to The Ottawa Citizen.

Those pandemic lessons will change the way that the hospital’s new campus is designed and built. The $2.8 billion development is scheduled to open in 2028 near Dow’s Lake. The hospital will have 700 private rooms, with enough size and equipment so at least 200 of them can be quickly converted to intensive-care rooms.

Designs for the development also will be modified to improve infection control. The pandemic highlighted the importance of operating rooms capable of deploying negative pressure to control the spread of airborne particles during intubations and other aerosol-generating procedures.