"The digitalisation of hospitals will become considerable," predicts Johan van Baardwijk, Marketing Director of EQUANS Healthcare in the Netherlands, who stresses that the development of telemedicine will radically change the use of care areas. "The development of ambulatory medicine is a major change, which means fewer beds in the future," says Alain Ventoux, Director for Building and Complex Works at EQUANS France. "Before, energy management and maintenance were a bit like the fifth wheel," says Marc Goossens, Sales Manager – French speaking side, at EQUANS Belux, "but now they are taken very seriously and often, right from the project’s conception”.
EQUANS' dedicated teams are, in fact, very much involved in the new solutions that need to be developed for hospitals. Tomorrow's hospital must be "zero carbon" above all. There are numerous options to be developed :
Improved insulation and airtightness, optimised building orientation, widespread LED lighting, adapted heating systems (heat pumps, simultaneous production of heat and cold, hydrogen fuel cells, energy recovery from waste water), more efficient air conditioning systems (ammonia cooling system, for example), and green electricity production (thanks in particular to solar panels). The hospital of tomorrow will also be smart : digital check-in at the entrance, mobile phone navigation system for patients and carers, data processing to optimise staff and patient movements... all innovations on which EQUANS is already positioning itself.