High isolation hospital clusters. A model for managing health emergencies in pandemic times

Among the Sustainable Development Goals established by 2030 Agenda, Goal 3 concerned to “ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all at all ages”, and set a series of challenging targets, such as: end all the epidemics and achieve universal health coverages for all the people of our planet. The paper shows a design experimentation held in Sant’Orsola Policlynic Hospital with the construction of a high insulation hospital cluster and illustrates guidelines for the design of Screening and Triages Areas connected with Hospital Emergency Departments, and of Modular Intensive Care Units. Both of them are specifically oriented to support the correct functioning of Hospitals during major emergencies, thus also ensuring the correct functioning of existing health networks in the case of traumatic events, more generally linked to the fragility of the territory (earthquakes, atmospheric events, …) and to accidental disasters (transport accidents, terrorist events, ). The paper reports some conclusive considerations about humanizing measures requirements