The Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam is one of eight Dutch university medical centres. The AMC is a leading international institution in the field of academic medicine. The nursing wards, where patients recover after treatment, are located in the F, G and H towers. The AMC is preparing a major renovation of the nursing wards in the F and G towers: a redesign of the nursing towers.
Future-proof nursing wards
The nursing wards at AMC Amsterdam will undergo a drastic overhaul in the next few years. The number of single rooms will increase significantly, while there will be updated facilities with a universal smart, flexible layout and sufficient accommodation for relatives and carers to stay the night. AT Osborne became involved in this comprehensive redesign at the end of 2015. Under the guidance of AT Osborne, various task groups contemplated and discussed the future-proof nursing ward. How will the work in this ward be carried out? Who will the patients be in future? What are the demands of the patients, visitors and medical staff? And what influence will new (technological) developments have?
Mock-up
Patient rooms are an essential component of the nursing ward. To be able to design these patient rooms based on their usage and with an eye for detail, AMC opted – on the recommendation of AT Osborne – to take a new approach to the design process. First, a contractor draws up a spatial concept according to the reversed design principle. An industrial designer then creates a Preliminary Design for the various patient rooms. A mock-up of the Preliminary Design is constructed, allowing nursing and support staff to test the new patient room layout. This generates valuable information for the optimisation of the Preliminary Design.
A ‘lean’ approach was implemented to enable these sessions to proceed smoothly. Doctors, (heads of) nursing staff, nursing management and representatives from ICT, logistics, nutrition and accommodation together went through the various procedural flows (patients, doctors, nurses, visitors, facilities) from arrival to departure. Focusing on activities and work processes rather than spaces during the initial phases created a solid basis for determining the spatial needs generated by these activities and work processes. In the next phase, this will be transformed into a functional/spatial programme that is in optimal alignment with the primary process of the future nursing ward. AT Osborne is currently translating the results of these sessions into concrete specifications. Construction work is scheduled to begin halfway through 2017.
Tender and contracting
For the redesign of the nursing towers AT Osborne drew up the purchasing strategy and handled the tendering and contracting process for the industrial designer. AT Osborne was also responsible for the tendering and contracting process for the design consortium. AT Osborne took the unique AMC location and complexity of the project into account when preparing the tender documents. This resulted in tender documents which incorporated AMC’s wishes and demands while appealing to experts.