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Description:
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The complete evacuation of hospital facilities is always a difficult and complex
process . It has always been considered a last resort during any kind of threat . In recent
years , the increasing number of manmade and natural disasters has generated a
considerable interest in hospital evacuation issues , but very few studies have addressed
this problem .
The purpose of this study is to develop design strategies for hospital facilities to
support the complete evacuation process . The following three objectives are considered
for fulfilling the requirements of the study : (a ) identify the disaster threats for hospital
buildings that drive the need for complete evacuation , (b ) develop an understanding of
the consequences and complexities of hospital evacuation , and (c ) form the design
strategies based on threat analysis , case -studies and experts’ reviews .
For interpretation purposes , this study use the qualitative research with casebased
reasoning approach to collect , summarize , and evaluate the recorded data . The
study is only focused on design considerations of some specific parameters for hospital building evacuation design . This study provides a comprehensive assessment of bestsuited
design strategies that could be adopted by healthcare architects or planners in
order to develop their designs in ways that improve the hospital building evacuation
process . |