Flexibility and Environmental Sustainability in Hospital Facilities

Environmental sustainability in healthcare facilities is a priority objective because of the high environmental impact, all over the life cycle of hospital buildings and especially during the service life. This paper aims to give a contribution to environmental sustainability assessment of hospital facilities focusing on infill in hospital facilities, with regards to their short service life and flexibility required over time for these components (the word infill is used according to OB theory). Research analyzes hospital complex system identifying and classifying the different areas that shape it, on the base of two criteria influencing the flexibility requirements: technological-systems complexity level and intensity of care. This study uses these two criteria to pick out, in every functional area, what is the higher the technologic complexity and intensity care are, the stronger will be the presence of infill with short service life and, consequently, the environmental impact due to their continuous replacement/modification. The study of the flexibility environmental impact is done through the LCA methodology applied to the surgery block case study. Keywords infill; environmental impact; w104; w110; healthcare; system complexity; indoor comfort