Patients often remain in hospital for recuperation or rehabilitation for an unnecessarily long time after medical interventions or treatments. Yet the hospital is the most expensive link in the healthcare chain and not every hospital stay is customised to the patient. A solution is available in the form of a care hotel; a place where customised care is provided, where patients are treated as guests who are in charge of their own stay and recovery. It is a temporary home where privacy, hospitality, comfort, service and 24-hour care are at the centre of your recovery. It is an environment where care is present, but not visible.
We have already developed a number of care hotels and lodging houses. Each design has the notion of a hotel at its core, as opposed to considering care as the starting point; that is the crux for us. The most recent care hotel is De Drie Eiken in Antwerp, near Monica University Hospital. It is a collaboration with Llox architects from Belgium. The care hotel combines the best of both worlds. Patient become guests who are in charge of their own stay and recovery. One condition for staying in the hotel is that the guests are no longer acutely ill and do not need constant specialised care. The care hotel doesn’t seem like a hospital. Care is not apparent; only quality, comfort and hospitality are visible here.
In 2010, we completed care hotel Aafje near the Maasstad Hospital in Rotterdam. This building is part of the Medimall and combines excellent care with the luxury of a hotel. The care hotel is linked to the hospital and there is close cooperation with specialists. By positioning the hospital staff restaurant underneath the hotel and opening this facility up to employees and visitors of the Medimall, professionals meet and socialise, effecting communication about first-rate, joint care provision for patients.
The new build of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital included the Rivas care hotel, where guests are given expert care in a colourful and welcoming environment. As well as the care hotel, we have also completed a maternity hotel.