During the last couple of months, we’ve all watched as the number of COVID-19 confirmed and probable cases have climbed at an alarming rate. As of April 29, 2020, every state has reported at least 451 cases with 19 states over 10,000 cases, resulting in a crushing demand on healthcare facilities across the country.
With hospital capacities experiencing unprecedented levels of strain, building and design industries have rallied to offer groundbreaking solutions to help COVID patients and their front-line caregivers through this historical moment.
The power of partnerships and pre-fab
Throughout recent discussions, we realized that like us, national technical builder DPR Construction (DPR) and digital fabrication firm Digital Building Components (DBC) were determining how to help solve this momentous healthcare challenge. Understanding that we would have more of an impact by working together, we launched: Rapid Deployment Solutions
Four modular solutions
Three mobile solutions
Two partition solutions
Two tented solutions
for hospitals looking to add temporary beds and support spaces for the short- and mid-term.
Each of our teams has different core competencies, and SurePods’ focus has been on leveraging modular benefits for patient rooms with anterooms, patient rooms, double bathrooms and temporary modular layouts. These components, along with the above solutions, will be available in 24 and 48 patient room set-ups, and overrun hospitals can utilize these semi-permanent wings in parking lots or other nearby plots of land.
Delivering modular hospital wings in mere weeks
Knowing that healthcare applications need innovation fast, DPR, DBC and SurePods can erect an entire wing in just four weeks once facility managers decide to move forward.
On the SurePods side of things, we’re creating whole patient rooms, including head walls, and double bathrooms out of 20 foot long International Organization for Standardization (ISO) shipping containers in our pre-fab factory. With the assistance of state-of-the-art equipment, we’re able to mass-produce all components of the rooms, bathrooms and layouts with superior dimensional accuracy. And, thanks to the controlled interior environment, we don’t have to stop work as a thunderstorm or other inclement weather rolls through. The result is a rapidly deployable, self-supporting structure that affords patient-doctor privacy.
Taking MEP tolerances into account
In terms of layout, the modular rooms take a page out of our pre-fab bathroom unit’s playbook. SurePods can work with facility architects and contractors to build a model in Revit for BIM that circumvents any mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) issues right out of the gate. With all intricacies worked out in advance, trades “plug and play” for quick connections for water, waste, med gas and electrical following shipping container delivery.
Meeting stringent COVID-19 requirements
To further ensure all the materials within the shipping container comply with healthcare building codes and standards, we looked to HDR for expertise. With guidance from the largest designer of hospitals in the US, all of the wing’s surfaces are antibacterial, and no organic materials can be found inside.
Now and into the future
While it’s unclear on how long the crisis will last, healthcare facilities can employ modular technology now to help curb capacity issues. And with the advent of rapid deployment solutions, states, governments and medical buildings are well equipped to serve in the face of future outbreaks.
For more information on rapid deployment solutions, contact us: connect@surepods.com.