The ‘Unidad de Cirugía Mayor Ambulatoria del Hospital del Norte’ is located on the ground floor of the consultation and emergency building, in a reserve space that had been left undeveloped. The area has double access, at one end from the lobby of the building for homeless patients, and at the other with an elevator connecting with the Emergency Room located below, for access to bedridden patients. These two existing accesses condition the entire organization of the unit, since it is essential to have the correct clean and dirty circuits, to guarantee the sterilization protocols for the operating rooms.
The greatest difficulty of the project has been to organize a complex program on a very small surface, with an excessively elongated geometry, with a reduced height between floors. At the same time, large-format operating rooms were requested to perform X-ray surgeries.
The unit has 2 operating rooms and all their support rooms, organized into 4 areas: a first waiting area, access and patient control; a second area for bedridden patients, organized around the nursing control, with an area for pre-anesthesia, awakening and adaptation to the environment; a third sterile area with operating rooms, warehouses, support rooms and a sterilization unit, and a fourth area with a dirty corridor and changing rooms.
The organization of the areas and the choice of materials have been made based on criteria of maximum comfort for the patient, maximum comfort for healthcare personnel and maximum durability of the materials. It has been sought that the operating rooms are as friendly spaces as possible, and that the patient preparation areas are bright, quiet and welcoming, in the conviction that architectural spaces can contribute to the tranquility of the patient and his recovery, allowing a better hospital experience.