Hospital epidemic preparedness: a checklist and case studies

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way to design, perceive and live the built environment. Healthcare facilities, especially hospitals, have undergone extensive renovation interventions to cope with the epidemic outbreak. This paper aims at developing a tool to assess infrastructural hospital preparedness to prevent and control coronavirus-induced nosocomial infections and the immediate protection of healthcare workers and patients. To better understand hospital preparedness elements and recommended infection prevention and control measures, the authors have reviewed Italian and international guidelines on the topic. Starting from this understanding, a checklist to assess the capacity has been developed. The checklist was validated by using a questionnaire involving a group of Italian healthcare workers. The functional areas considered by the checklist are emergency departments, diagnostic imaging units, hospital wards and intensive care units. The proposed tool has been tested on two case studies regarding two Italian emergency departments. This work could support the prioritization of preventing actions in hospitals and help health authorities evaluate their real estate in order to reduce their vulnerability in case of viral outbreaks.