The built environment's influence on resilience of healthcare services: lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic

Natália Ransolin, Carlos Emilio Stigler Marczyk, Rafael Parmeggiani Gering, Tarcísio Abreu Saurin, Carlos Torres Formoso, Tor Olav Grøtan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference proceeding contributionpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges for healthcare services, which have been forced to upscale their capacity to cope with successive surges in demand. The adjustments to match capacity to demand and deal with a new disease have involved creativity and solutions that were not part of the pre-pandemic standardized operating procedures. Those changes are considered manifestations of resilience. This paper focuses on the role played by the built environment of healthcare services during the pandemic, in terms of how it is integral to resilient performance. As such, we investigated the experience of a leading private hospital in Brazil, documenting the main changes related to the built environment and how they influenced resilience. Data collection involved eight interviews with hospital staff. A content analysis allowed the development of a generic functional model of the patient journey and the identification of ten resilience practices. Based on this, six lessons learnt were devised. These lessons are expected to be useful for the design and use of the built environment, supporting the resilience of services.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLean construction in crisis times
Subtitle of host publicationresponding to the post-pandemic AEC industry challenges
EditorsLuis Fernando Alarcon, Vicente A. Gonzalez, Danny Murguia, Xavier Brioso
Place of PublicationLima
PublisherDepartment of Engineering, Civil Engineering Division, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru
Pages613-622
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9786124802546
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Externally publishedYes
Event29th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, IGLC 2021 - Lima, Peru
Duration: 14 Jul 202117 Jul 2021

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction
PublisherInternational Group for Lean Construction
ISSN (Print)2309-0979
ISSN (Electronic)2789-0015

Conference

Conference29th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, IGLC 2021
Country/TerritoryPeru
CityLima
Period14/07/2117/07/21

Keywords

  • built environment
  • complexity
  • COVID-19
  • Healthcare services
  • resilience

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