Integrating Medical Equipment into a Home Design
The western world has, largely, an aging population as Boomers move into their sixties and seventies. No following generation had as many children, and birth rates are on the decline for various reasons. Separately, but also pertinent, people with disabilities are stepping out of the shadows into which society had placed them: separate and dependent. Disabled people are fighting back, demanding equal pay for equal work, enforcing ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accommodations, and refusing to be turned away by restaurants, taxis, public transport and places of work that are unwilling to adapt to discriminatory 'norms'. These two groups of people are making changes to the way the world works: and that includes the field of home design.
Photo by Marcus Aurelies
Who Needs Medical Equipment at Home?
About 21% of the US population are Boomers – the children of those who fought in the Second World War – and about 10% of the US population are severely disabled while as many as a quarters have some kind of disability). Some people will fall into both camps: aging Boomer and disabled, but broadly speaking at least 27% of the US population needs some kind of medical assistance at home. This can range from fully equipped hospital beds, with hoists, wheelchairs and especially designed wet rooms, or it can be as simple as installing sturdy handrails in showers or by steps, or non-slip grips on the stairs.
How Does Medical Equipment Fit Into a Home?
At present, it can be awkward, to retrofit a modern home to be suitable for use by a disabled, elderly or ill person. Hospital beds are larger and taller than domestic single beds, and they can take up a lot of room in a home, sometimes even needing to be fitted into the living room to have enough space around it for appropriate nursing or lifting to be done. This can make the person who needs the medical equipment feel as though they are imposing their illness or needs above those of the rest of the family, and they can feel tremendous guilt for this.
What Can Be Done About It?
There are three ways that homes can be arranged to accommodate medical needs.
The first is changing the home while you are living in it. This is the most awkward way, as – short of moving out for a few weeks while the work is done – the building and redesign must be as minimally invasive and quick as possible.
Second, a better way is to equip the home after you have bought it, but before you move in. This will allow you to fully renovate bathrooms, swapping slippery showers and high-sided bathtubs for a walk-in wet room; or strip out wheelchair-unfriendly floors, such as carpeting and parquet, in favour of smooth tiles which are wonderfully accessible and very easy to clean.
But the third way, the best, is to incorporate the idea of medical equipment installation right from the drawing board. This allows room sizes to be adjusted to allow a good amount of living space alongside life-saving equipment, for accessibility to be considered from curb to attic, and essentially, creates a home that will help the inhabitants live their best lives, almost effortlessly.
What Changes Can Be Made During the Design Stage?
As mentioned above, flooring that is accessible and wheelchair friendly can be laid down, but also a seemingly minor factor that makes wheelchair users' lives more difficult is that a standard doorway does not consider the extra width that a wheelchair needs: many disabled people's homes have scrape marks on the door jambs where the inhabitants have had to force their way through in their
wheelchair. Allowing an extra three or four inches of the doorway can ensure easy accessibility throughout the home.
Wheel-in wet rooms can allow disabled or poorly mobile people to practice good hygiene and take themselves to the toilet when they need to go, retaining dignity and quality of life for longer.
Electrical wiring is important too, to allow for sensors and monitors to be used, breathing assistance given and other medical help rendered without delay when it is needed. And finally, air conditioning and filtration systems can be put into place. An elderly patient with respiratory issues might need very clean air to be comfortable: they will also need the temperature to be warm and stable, with no cold drafts or breezes causing them discomfort. All these factors and more. can be accounted for at the design stage and implemented during the build.
Speak to Medical Equipment Planners/ Installers
This is a job best left to the home design experts: it can be easy to misjudge just how much work is needed. Experts in medically friendly home design can alert you to issues you are not even aware of: such as having plugs at waist height, rather than low down, for greater visibility and less likelihood of something vital being switched off in error. A small detail, but one which can save a life.
Such architects know their field well: they understand the needs of individual patients will vary, but they can make a 'standard' medically friendly home layout that can very easily be customized for more specific medical needs. They can also help throughout the whole process: from budget and planning to implementation – overseeing the building phase – to completion, and the final decorative touches that make rooms so much more pleasant to spend time in.
Following on from Work from Home
Work from home has become a global standard of late, and 'heal from home' is sure to follow: as long as patients can demonstrate their ability to look after themselves with the help of their smart technology, fully equipped home. Patients, if properly looked after, tend to do better and heal faster in their home environment. And this is the same for older folks and disabled people: having a home that is a safe haven for them, designed to meet their needs, can be the difference between just existing and actively living.
Architects need to stay on top of customer needs when it comes to home design if they are to survive in their business. From the traditional city design which clearly separated home, work, and health, today's modern homes need to be able to do it all under one roof.
Author Bio: This article was written by Conor O’Flynn of O’Flynn Medical. O’Flynn Medical is a leading supplier of medical equipment nationwide.
