DESIGNING FOR RESILIENCE: USING A DELPHI STUDY TO IDENTIFY RESILIENCE ISSUES FOR HOSPITAL DESIGNS IN A CHANGING CLIMATE

DS 68-5: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED 11), Impacting Society through Engineering Design, Vol. 5: Design for X / Design to X, Lyngby/Copenhagen, Denmark, 15.-19.08.2011

Year: 2011
Editor: Culley, S.J.; Hicks, B.J.; McAloone, T.C.; Howard, T.J. & Malmqvist, J.
Author: Masko, Mary Lou; Eckert, Claudia M.; Caldwell, Nicholas H.M.; Clarkson, P John
Series: ICED
Section: Design for X, Design to X
Page(s): 60-69

Abstract

Hospitals are facing a triple challenge - meeting mandatory climate change targets and refurbishing aging infrastructure while simultaneously providing quality of care. With the potential of more frequent disruptive weather events, a UK government-funded project was launched in 2009 to investigate practical strategies for the National Health Service to increase its resilience to climate change. This paper presents the process of defining resilience by using the Delphi method and demonstrates its applicability within healthcare design. A Delphi survey is nearing completion which has determined the significant resilience issues and temperature ranges for ideal and critical conditions. Our preliminary findings identified six priorities that lead towards increasing resilience. Using the Delphi method can be a useful tool in clarifying the focus for healthcare design considerations.

Keywords: RESILIENCE; HEALTHCARE DESIGN; DELPHI METHOD; CLIMATE CHANGE

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