Efficiency, hygiene, safety and complexity united in one design
Building a 'going concern' in a limited down-town space, that was the challenge. The result is a hospital pharmacy that balances hard and soft requirements: efficiency, hygiene and safety versus perception, transparency and recognizability
The hospital pharmacy of the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis has undergone an internal renovation. Lack of space made expansion inevitable. Moreover, the existing pharmacy no longer met the more stringent laws and regulations. The pharmacy manages the purchase, preparation, delivery and quality control of all drugs used in the hospital. In all, the pharmacy deals with some 200,000 drug orders a year.
Efficiency vs. perception
Efficiency, hygiene, safety and complexity are key words when designing a pharmacy. In addition, transparency, recognizability and perception also play large parts. In designing the pharmacy, EGM architects endeavoured to strike a balance between both hard and soft requirements. For example, in the hospital pharmacy, the lab was designed as recognizable interior space, surrounded by offices, cleanrooms and logistics rooms. The large amount of glass and natural light makes this room transparent and easy to navigate. This way, the employees see who they are working for and with, and the working process is fully visible to the patients.
Going concern
The hospital pharmacy was given a central place in the hospital: close to the departments that regularly interact with the hospital pharmacists, directly above Accident & Emergency, below the Anna Pavilion and next to Intensive Care. During the pharmacy's conversion, the contractors built as a 'going concern', meaning the hospital remained in operation. The alterations were made during two separate phases in the course of which interim solutions were devised. This made collaboration, communication and a tight planning very important. That's especially true when dealing with limited space in a down-town area, as was the case here. Working in an area the size of a postage stamp is taxing for all parties involved.
Collaboration
The collaboration between EGM and the OLVG goes back a long way. Starting as early as 1988, EGM has been involved in several large- and small-scale building, renovation and extension projects. And 25 years on, we are still working together within the contours of the Masterplan that was designed back then and is still strong today. The most recent projects were the outpatient pharmacy, completed in 2013, and the hospital pharmacy and the Anna Pavilion, which were brought into use in 2014.
Award
The hospital pharmacy and the outpatient pharmacy were jointly nominated for the 2014 Innovation to Care award, a competition designed to encourage commendable ideas in the healthcare sector.