The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has launched an "assessment tool" to help public officials to identify alternative care sites for the Covid-19 pandemic as the capacity of hospitals started to hit the United States.

Entitled The COVID-19 Alternate Care Sites Assessment Tool, it has been published following an announcement of a new task force announced by the AIA last week. 

The 10-page guide provides a checklist highlighting important areas to consider when evaluating buildings, such as convention centers, sports arenas, community centers, hotels, dormitories and other spaces to be used for temporary healthcare operations during a pandemic. 

The AIA's tool intends to identify the most suitable care sites

The AIA's tool is intended to help individuals—who are not healthcare design experts—with a rapid evaluation of buildings compatible for supporting patient care operations; providing for the needs and safety of healthcare staff and patients; and mitigating the spread of disease.

"This tool is geared toward flexible and rapid decision making during a public health pandemic," said task force chair Dr. Molly Scanlon, FAIA, FACHA, who is an environmental health scientist at Phigenics."

"Our goal was to synthesize decades of healthcare knowledge and experience into a checklist reflecting the key essential elements of healthcare operations to reduce risk and increase safety at an alternative care site."

The AIA stated that "the task force developed the tool using established healthcare design best practices and standards in combination with federal documents issued during the Covid-19 crisis." 

Additionally, professional input was provided from trained and experienced health care architects, engineers, life-safety consultants, front line health workers, and hospital facility operations. 

The AIA has also published a comprehensive briefing of the task force’s initiatives in its website.

Alternative care sites are shown on an online global map

On April 3, the task force launched an online resource to facilitate sharing of built environment solutions when responding to Covid-19 surge capacity.  

The AIA has formed this online source with the efforts of architects, designers, engineers and facility managers, by asking to provide project information and images of Covid-19 alternate care sites to put into an online database. 

The facility and its location will appear on an online global map produced and quality controlled by the University of Kansas’ Institute of Health + Wellness Design. The taskforce developed the tool to catalog current public health and healthcare facility response and to create a research database for future pandemics.

"AIA’s task force was launched to support the COVID-19 response. It is comprised of architects with a wide range of expertise, including healthcare facility design, urban design, public health and disaster assistance," stated the AIA.

Top image: Rooms have been set up for patients at a temporary hospital in the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York. Image © Angus Mordant/Bloomberg

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