Massachusetts General Hospital’s $1 billion expansion will include features designed to allow the facility to serve as a refuge for as long as four days in an emergency, according to Construction Dive.
The design will consider every worst-case scenario for the structure, using case studies based on healthcare facilities that functioned during and after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and 2012’s Superstorm Sandy.
The hospital also is flood-proofing existing buildings, and critical functions will be relocated to upper floors, says Sally Mason Boemer, the hospital senior vice president of administration and finance, adding that windows and doors will feature protective coatings.
The Partners HealthCare network, which includes Massachusetts General, has been working to institute resilience measures across its more than 30 facilities. Partners' Spaulding Rehabilitation Center in Boston was the city’s first waterfront building to be designed to combat the effects of climate change. It was built at 30 inches above the 500-year floodplain and has large granite berms to block floodwaters.
Cathryn Jakicic is healthcare industries editor of FacilitiesNet.com. For more information on hospital campuses and other medical facilities, click here.
