Shipping Container Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The world has been changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the past few years, we all have made sacrifices and changed our ways of living, but those who work at health care centers have had to make the biggest sacrifices. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be more than what our medical facilities of the pre-pandemic era could handle, so temporary hospitals and medical centers started appearing everywhere.
There were different types of temporary medical centers, some where buildings which had other uses before the pandemic, such as sports centers and arenas, but some where specifically built as temporary structures dedicated to the fight against the pandemic, shipping container clinics were among the used types. In this article, we will talk about the role shipping containers played during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shipping Container Hospitals
Patients contracted with the corona virus often needed hospital care, and a great portion of them required intensive care, meaning that they could occupy hospital beds and Intensive Care Unit beds for long periods of time. There are limited numbers of ICU beds around the world, and almost no country in the world had enough capacity to address the large numbers of patients in need of intensive care.
One thing became apparent rather quickly after the outbreak of the pandemic; health care systems of almost nowhere in the world had enough capacity to handle the vast number of COVID-19 patients. To address this problem, temporary hospitals came into play. Shipping containers are very flexible at what they can be, and they can be easily turned into hospitals or shipping container clinics The modular nature of shipping containers makes them perfect choices for temporary hospitals. You can build many hospital rooms, storage rooms, operation rooms, and any other type of hospital space in a factory. Shipping containers are quickly repurposed in factories, and shipping them to any location is very easy.
The amazing thing is that you can add to the capacity of any hospital easily, so you would not have to wait for the entire structure to be built to start using the shipping container hospital. You can also move the entire hospital easily if the need arises, which happened on many occasions during the pandemic. One production line of shipping container hospitals can be tasked with building many temporary hospitals, and they can also prepare spare parts as well, so each built shipping container clinic or hospital can take a shape and form according to what its environment dictates.
The capacity and number of hospital beds added to the health care systems around the world by shipping container clinics and hospitals during the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic eased many concerns, and whenever any of these hospitals were no longer needed, they were easily moved to a location in which they were.
Housing For Hospital Staff with Shipping Containers
The hospital structure itself isn’t the only use for shipping containers. Hospitals need doctors, nurses, and other facility workers to ensure all the health standards are met, and all those workers proved to be extremely valuable assets during the COVID-19 pandemic. These experts were in fewer numbers than required as well, so temporary hospitals often brought in their own groups of staff.
Many cities around the world could provide accommodation for these ever-moving hospital staff, but COVID-19 restrictions were serious obstacles. Although most hotels and residences rose to meet safety standards and health protocols of COVID-19, hospital staff were at far more risk than other guests of these type of residences, so providing temporary housing for them was vital as well, since housing them at hotels and that type of residents would put the entirety of guests and hotel staff at risk.
Shipping containers again proved to be valuable assets in this regard. With pre-built residential shipping containers, the entirety of the hospital staff could be allocated and lodged conveniently and close to the hospital location. Just like shipping container hospitals, these mobile residents came with their own plumbing, electric facilities and outlets, and all the necessary equipment. Shipping container houses and residents were as vital in the fight against covid as shipping container hospitals themselves.
Shipping Container Vaccine Centers
As time passed during the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines were prepared, and with that, the need for vaccination centers arose. Shipping container vaccination centers proved very useful again, as in many locations in the world the shipping containers which were repurposed to be hospitals were utilized as vaccination centers.
In Italy, a certain type of shipping container vaccination center was designed specifically for vaccination and aiding respiratory challenged patients. Named CURA (Connected Units for Respiratory Ailments, also means ‘cure’ in Latin), these shipping container medical centers were designed by a collaboration between Italian designer group Carlo Ratti Associati and the MIT. These units were first utilized in northern Italy, one of the worst-hit locations in the world by the corona virus. Their special design meant more safety for patients and the hospital staff. This type of shipping container hospital was designed for the COVID-19 pandemic, but it could easily come in use for any other pandemic or temporary hospitals for whatever reason.
Where to Obtain Shipping Container Hospitals
Here at Green Box Containers, we have years of experience in repurposing shipping containers into a wide variety of structures, temporary and permanent. Following the latest trends in the world, we can repurpose shipping containers into hospitals. You can order specially designed clinics or shipping container hospitals, for COVID-19 or any other type.
We will walk beside you every step of the way during the design phase to make sure that the finished product will satisfy all your requirements, and after you approve the designs, we can deliver your shipping container hospital within 30 days. Cruise through our pages and any other page on the web for inspiration and contact us.