Modbury Hospital Redevelopment

Modbury, South Australia

Innovative Practices

The Modbury Hospital has been providing vital health care to its local community since it was established in 1973. The Hospital serves over 400,000 residents in Adelaide’s north and north-eastern suburbs.

As joint Principal Architect with project partner GHD, Studio STH undertook the design of major upgrade works delivering clinical upgrades of high priority areas including an expanded Acute Surgical Unit, a dedicated Extended Emergency Care Unit (EECU), a 26-bed Short Stay General Medical Unit (SSGMU), an Enhanced Care Unit and relocation of the Out Patient Department.

Alongside the clinical care works, major building infrastructure and façade improvements were carried out.

The development of the Studio STH design for the campus was heavily focused on buildability and the capacity to stage the works in an operational site. The most challenging of these was the redevelopment of the Surgical Suite, in which the STH Team proposed a series of logical development steps that culminated in a fully renovated modern Perioperative and Operating Suite environment.

Key design elements included strategies to:

Maximise natural light, increase exterior views and reduce ambient noise to enhance healing environments.
Incorporate flexibility and adaptability in spatial layouts, work arrangement and interchangeable rooms to allow for future expansion.
Create efficient and streamlined flows to reduce travel, improve ease of maintenance and maximise the area available.

Key design outcomes include:

Endoscopic and Procedural Rooms were increased from one room to two rooms in the upgrade. The design of the rooms incorporated requirements identified in the AUSHFG and achieved a new level of operational efficiencies for the health service.
Scope processing and unidirectional work flow of scopes and clinicians was integrated into the design.
Dedicated dirty zones with direct entry / pathway from rooms with height adjustable sinks and support equipment facilitated the first stage of the processing of scopes.
Pass through equipment for scope processing was part of the design and operational model of the space from the initial concept to align with best practice and work flows.
Airflows and physical separation of spaces enabled the clinical team to achieve operation performance.
Bank of drying cabinets store cleaned and processed scopes ready for procedures at a moment’s notice.