By Healthcare Facilities Today

Designers of the new Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital in Singapore were given a daunting task - to create the "hospital of the future at a Four Seasons." 

San Francisco architecture firm HOK took their 5-star orders and created a the first greenfield private hospital built in Singapore in more than 30 years—specializing in heart and vascular treatment, neurosciences, orthopedics, and surgery, according to an article in Healthcare Design magazine.

The hospital houses the latest in surgical and medical equipment; same-handed, canted rooms; and ambient lighting in the ICUs to aid in healing, according to the article. MNH is the first private hospital in the country to have all single beds for the inpatient wards. The designers also focused on operations and paths of travel. MNH project required separate paths for clean and dirty goods, food, and for bodies being transported to the morgue. 

“It’s a bad omen to cross a dead body ever in a hospital [in Singapore], so that was one of our biggest challenges,” said Shiva Mendez, senior medical planner at HOK. “We had to separate that path as much as possible, even from the staff.”

The design team says this intricate mapping resulted in nearly double the amount of elevators and corridors at MNH than is typical for a facility this size, according to the article.

Read the article and view the photo gallery.