9-2015 Sustainable hospital design and resilient infrastructure – Kolandoto Healthy Hospital, phase 2

Forskare: Lisa Bergstrand, Nathalie Hansson, Stina Svärd, Eric Kalisa Twizeyimana, Therance Ndisanga.  

Detta är andra fasen av projektet “Kolandoto Healthy Hospital” som är ett samarbete mellan Kolandoto Hospital i Tanzania, och tre Svenska ideella föreningar: I Aid Africa, Arkitekter utan Gränser och Ingenjörer utan Gränser. Den andra fasen, som genomförs under 2016, är ett samarbete mellan tre examensarbeten på Chalmers Tekniska Högskola. Det gemensamma syftet är att, genom samarbete, vidare utreda sjukhusets infrastruktur och föreslå strategier och designförslag, samt att implementera lösningar för ett mer hållbart sjukhus.

Sustainable hospital design and resilient infrastructure has been a collaboration between three master theses at Chalmers University of Technology conducted at Kolandoto Hospital in Tanzania as part of the second phase of the “Healthy Hospital” project during the spring of 2016. The “Healthy Hospital” project is a collaboration between Kolandoto Hospital, and the three Swedish NGOs I Aid Africa (IAA), Architects without Borders (ASF) and Engineers without Borders (ISF). The aim of “Healthy Hospital” is to, through several phases, rehabilitate the facilities and infrastructure at Kolandoto Hospital and support the hospital to fully become a Council Designated Hospital, CDH. 

Download full PDFs: 
ARQ 9-2015_Case study of Kolandoto Hospital II_Development through Participatory Design_Rapport Bergstrand
ARQ 9-2015_Case study of Kolandoto Hospital II_Trust in a Change Process_Rapport Hansson,Svard
ARQ 9-2015_Case study of Kolandoto Hospital II_Feasibility study of Power System_Rapport Twiseyimana, Ndisanga

 

Final Project Summary
Three Masters’ Thesis in Master degree programmes:
Electrical Power Engineering
Sustainable Energy Systems
Industrial Ecology programme
Department of Energy and Environment CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Gothenburg, Sweden 2016

  • Kolandoto on Call – Developing an Emergency Department through Participatory Design by Lisa Bergstand 2016.
  • The Significance of Trust in a Change Process – Case study of Kolandoto Hospital becoming a council designated hospital by Nathalie Hansson and Stina Svärd 2016.
  • Feasibility study of a sustainable power system for health facilities – Tanzania by Eric Kalisa Twizeyimana and Therance Ndisanga 2016.  
  • Sustainable hospital design and resilient infrastructure has been a collaboration between three master theses at Chalmers University of Technology conducted at Kolandoto Hospital in Tanzania as part of the second phase of the “Healthy Hospital” project during the spring of 2016. Sustainable development has been an important and widely discussed issue during the last decades and has shifted to include both economic and social development in addition to environmental sustainability. UN has adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that reflect this focus shift and among these goals is “Good health and well-being”. One of the targets for this particular goal is to achieve universal health coverage and ensure access to quality essential healthcare services. Tanzania is a country where high patient fees and lack of adequate healthcare facilities in rural areas means that there is a need to improve the access to quality healthcare. Kolandoto Hospital, situated in the north part of Tanzania, is facing a number of challenges concerning inadequate access to quality water, an unreliable power supply as well as insufficient facilities for emergency care and economic instability. In order to address these challenges successfully it is important to fully understand the context and to make sure that all the involved parties are participating in the change process. Research suggests that participation is an important factor for gaining trust in organizational change processes as well as reaching better results in design processes. Participation have the possibility to create a mutual learning process, both within the organization and between organizations and designers/engineers.The “Healthy Hospital” project is a collaboration between Kolandoto Hospital, and the three Swedish NGOs I Aid Africa (IAA), Architects without Borders (ASF) and Engineers without Borders (ISF). The aim of “Healthy Hospital” is to, through several phases, rehabilitate the facilities and infrastructure at Kolandoto Hospital and support the hospital to fully become a Council Designated Hospital, CDH. The first phase the project was conducted in spring 2015 and resulted in a full survey of the infrastructure at the hospital. The common aim of the second phase and these master theses was to do further investigations of the infrastructure and propose strategies and designs as well as implement solutions for a more sustainable hospital. In the coming phases the goal is to implement more of the proposed design solutions for new facilities.

    The overall approach for the theses was to utilize Kolandoto hospital as a qualitative case study to study the processes of a sustainable architectural and engineering healthcare projects in the international development field. The research focus was to investigate and evaluate possibilities and risks related to the development of the hospital and how communication, participation and trust affect both change and design processes. This was done through interviews and workshops carried out during eight weeks at the hospital.

    The architectural thesis concluded that, in an international development context, a participatory design approach can be particularly useful in the early stages of an architectural design project. However, the participatory approach proved to be time consuming and it is therefore advisable to continuously evaluate the added value in comparison to an, often shorter, conventional process. The engineering thesis which aimed to support the transition of Kolandoto Hospital becoming a CDH identified a positive attitude towards change within the organization. A perceived passivity of the hospital management in relation to government promise indicated a possible gap between stated and “actual” trust in the government. The financial issues at the hospital affect both the quality of care and the wellbeing of the staff and the study suggests that an improved financial situation would have a positive effect on the trust of all involved actors. The importance of fully becoming a CDH to improve the financial situation was stressed. The second engineering thesis showed that a Solar PV with backup system, interconnected with the power grid and diesel generator, is feasible and that it provides a solution to the critical energy reliability at Kolandoto Hospital. A design for such a system was proposed for selected emergency health appliances. The study showed that a hybridized system of solar PVs, inverter, batteries, diesel generator and grid is the most reliable solution in areas were reliability of the power grid is low.