The Vall d’Hebron Hospital presented this Wednesday the project of one of the most ambitious changes of the expansion and renovation of the facilities that the center launched in 2017: the new ambulatory care building. the construction, 10 floors and an area of 46,210 square meters, will bring together all the outpatient services of the complex -except pediatrics- and will host 250 outpatient clinics, 100 examination rooms and 100 day hospital beds, in addition to diagnostic and treatment support units, a pharmacy and a rehabilitation area, thus freeing up space in the main body of the health center, which will be able to concentrate resources on hospitalized patients and surgical activity. The building already has the municipal permit after the approval in the December 2020 plenary session of the urban improvement plan for Llosa de la Vall d’Hebron, and with a budget, provided by the Government, of 70 million euros, side equipment. The works are planned to estart in 2024, after the drafting of the executive project, and end in 2026.
Change in the urban landscape
The new building will mean an important change in the way the hospital works, as it will entail a radical change in patient flow, since from the inauguration, outpatient visits, one million a year and with a forecast of reaching one and a half million in the future, will not share space or resources with admitted patients. And it will also mean a total change in the urban landscape, not in vain the construction will rise on the other side of the round of Dalt, in the northernmost part of the municipal land between the Paseo de la Vall d’Hebron and the streets of Granja Vella and Basses d’Horta, with the façade facing the rest of the facilities. The coverage of this part of the round remains to be defined in the future to improve communication with the entire health facility, something that, when the time comes, will have to be addressed and decided by the town council on duty but which seems reasonable if the intention is to unite not only the medical facility but also the four neighborhoods that somehow separate the hospital complex : Montbau, Sant Genís dels Agudells, La Teixonera and Vall d’Hebron.
Consultations, from eight to eight
However, the most radical transformation will be in the operation of the health center: “a paradigm shift & rdquor ;, in the doctor’s opinion Alberto Salazar, hospital manager, and “a key element of the transformation of the clinical campus” since “the ambulatory care regimen will be increasingly important, not only for the efficiency and sustainability of the system but also for the comfort of the patient”. For this -to avoid unnecessary admissions that do not help either health efficiency or the patient- it is important good accessibility and good resolution capacity. For the former, the new building foresees a time slot adapted to demand and family conciliation, that is, from eight in the morning to eight in the evening; and for the latter, an organization that it does not contemplate the distribution by medical specialties but by functional units. “Current medicine of excellence is made up of multidisciplinary teams that act in an interdisciplinary manner,” Salazar points out.
New care model
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The objective is put the patient in the center, that the patient can solve his medical problem with a single visit: with the necessary tests and consultations to different specialists a single day. No travel and programming for different days, extending the solution over time, something difficult to manage today due to the dispersion of specialties. It is, in short, a change of assistance modell that encourages medical professionals to adapt to the needs of patients instead of forcing the patient to submit to the operation of the health institution. But in order to work in healthcare in the 21st century, it is essential to have a 21st century building, and this is where the winning project of the contest signed by the architects comes in Diego Nakamatsu and Lluís Moran, with previous experience in healthcare facilities.
Sustainable with natural light and views
Thus, the new building has been thought of as “a ndiaphanous bird without pillars, flexible and adaptable, which can change, grow and adapt” to different uses if necessary, assures Nakamatsu, with wide spaces that will receive natural light and ventilation, In addition to enjoying views of the city and the sea, and betting on energy saving. Its construction will be done with industrialized and prefabricated elements, and, in fact, it aspires to achieve the Net Zero and LEED certifications of sustainability. But not only that: “It will be an intelligent building, with advances in technology for patient traceability in a virtual environment and the robotization of logistics distribution,” Moran points out.