Towards Socially sustainable Healthcare Facilities – the Role of Evidence-based Design in Regeneration of Existing Hospitals in Serbia

Social sustainability of existing healthcare (HC) facilities in future will depend on their ability to improve quality and design towards user-oriented performance. Evidence based design presents an adequate tool for analyzing existing and future design of HC facilities. Hospitals in Serbia are in a bad condition, and each year less people are choosing to be treated in public hospitals.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze current design problems by evaluating the social sustainability of existing hospital facilities in Serbia and suggest possible guidelines for further research in this area. The biggest healthcare facility in Serbia called Medical Military Academy (MMA) was selected as a case study. A group of key stakeholders consisted of patients, non-medical and medical staff from the MMA hospital were selected to collaborate. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. The methodological framework consists of: fundamental literature review, participant observation, extensive interviews, and surveys. Further analyses were conducted in form of quality assessment from the perspective of aforementioned stakeholders, based on specific set of criteria, divided in two main categories: comfort/distribution and safety/humanization. This evaluation is achieved through technical analyses and qualitative surveys using questionnaires. The preliminary findings identified several key problems in existing design of the hospital, regarding both global social sustainability and specific critical areas.This paper presents in-depth analyses and first assessment of existing hospital design of this kind done in Serbia. New model for evaluation social sustainability of HC infrastructure is established. Results of this research will contribute to improving healthcare infrastructure and could present the first step on the path to creating socially sustainable healthcare facilities in Serbia.