Ultra-rapid delivery of specialty field hospitals to combat COVID-19: Lessons learned from the Leishenshan Hospital project in Wuhan.

ABSTRACT

With the outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic in Wuhan, China, in January 2020, the escalating number of confirmed and suspected cases overwhelmed the admission capacity of the designated hospitals. Two specialty field hospitals-Huoshenshan and Leishenshan-were designed, built and commissioned in record time (9-12 days) to address the outbreak. This study documents the design and construction of Leishenshan Hospital. Based on data collected from various sources such as the semi-structured interviews of key stakeholders from Leishenshan Hospital, this study found that adhering to a product, organization, and process (POP) modeling approach combined with building information modeling (BIM) allowed for the ultra-rapid creation, management, and communication of project-related information, resulting in the successful development of this fully functional, state-of-the-art infectious disease specialty hospital. With the unfortunate ongoing international COVID-19 outbreak, many countries and regions face similar hospital capacity problems. It is thus expected that the lessons learned from the design, construction and commissioning of Leishenshan Hospital can provide a valuable reference to the development of specialty field hospitals in other countries and regions.