630
Recommendations: Further Research
633.4
STUDY RELATIVE MERITS OF HORIZONTAL VS. VERTICAL
HOSPITAL CONFIGURATIONS
Currently adequate cost/benefit information related to configuration is not
available. It is suggested that there is sufficient benefit potential for the
Veterans Administration to warrant such a study.
Operational costs are closely interrelated with hospital configuration.
Factors such as the selection of transportation systems, building height
and the relationship of functional units are coupled with decisions
regarding type of distribution systems, administrative policy, employee
wage rates and socio-medical factors such as acceptable patient waiting
times. A system of trade-offs involving these factors is suggested.
633.5
DEVELOP NEW WORKING DRAWING TECHNIQUES
Section 440 in the Design Manual stresses the importance of contract
documents in the successful application of the Prototype Design. Some
ways in which working drawings could be organized to take advantage of
system characteristics are also mentioned.
There has been a recent proliferation of new techniques for working
drawing production including photography, multi-color printing, and the
use of computers. The unique characteristics of the Prototype Design
may make it particularly well suited for the exploitation of some or all these
techniques.
With the rapidly increasing complexity of modern hospitals, working
drawings have become correspondingly complex and voluminous. The
cost of producing, checking, reviewing, changing, printing and transmitting
these documents has become a major expense in the design process.
Increasingly large contingency factors are being included in construction
contractors' bids because of the extreme difficulty in arriving at accurate
estimates on the basis of such complicated, and often confusing,
documents.
The VA should study the general problem of effective and efficient
communication through contract documents in the light of these
developments, in terms of both organization of symbolism and notation
and the use of advanced production techniques, particularly as
appropriate to the Prototype Design.
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