Sustainable hospitals: critical items for their construction and the role of technical inspection

Abstract

Currently, the public health infrastructure in Chile, at its different scales, has made important advances in determining sustainability design criteria. However, it is possible to see that, during its construction, there are no standardized verification processes on sustainability aspects, and that the work of technical inspection focuses on the administrative compliance of construction contracts, rather than on checking technical aspects. This research proposes a list of critical items and activities to supervise hospital construction, to guarantee sustainable criteria in their operation. A survey was also made to professionals involved in the design, construction, and supervision of hospital construction, ranking the results with a multi-criteria methodology (AHP), which showed a preference in the thermal envelope (20%) and thermal and ventilation installations (17%). Finally, based on the weaknesses stated by the professionals, a control and monitoring process of these items and activities is proposed, redesigning the work of the Worksite’ Technical Inspector.