Problems of the modernisation of 20th-century healthcare facilities based on the example of hospitals within the Lubelskie Voivodeship

Abstract

Most hospitals in Poland date back to the 20th century. Due to developments in technology and medicine, these buildings need to be adapted to meet modern needs. Due to these needs and the possibility of EU funding for hospitals, modernisation has become an extremely topical subject. The aim of the research was to identify what types of modernisation work had been carried out after 2004 and to identify the main problems associated with this work. The subjects of the study were 38 hospitals from the Lubelskie Voivodeship in which various types of modernisation work had been carried out. Based on the data collected on these hospitals, interviews with selected managers and the authors' own experience of working on the modernisation of hospitals from the 20th century, seven main problems associated with the ten different modernisation works identified were distinguished. The authors formulated ten questions which can be helpful to hospital managers before embarking on building upgrades and that will help them define the main problems, objectives and a more holistic rather than fragmented approach to adapting hospitals to modern requirements.