Alux on a guided tour of the New University Hospital
Thursday, September 8th was the day we finally got to go and learn more about how the large hospital construction project is progressing and what the point of it all is. And then, of course, we had to see where the many Alux blinds are installed.
The New University Hospital in Skejby is the largest hospital construction project in Danish history, and Alux is supplying and installing a total of approx. 3,500 Sun 4000 blinds.
Such a large construction project requires considerations that few of us can imagine. And after a good hour of wandering around, through, up, down and over, we had only been served a small piece of the cake. Our guide showed and told us about the ingenious pipeline system, the change-ready building, the state-of-the-art departments, new procedures, the training capacity and a whole lot more. Efficiency was the common theme, and it was clear that every detail has been considered and reconsidered to get the best possible result. This included the location of departments in relation to each other, diagnostics in one place, tracking of equipment and patients, an app with directions throughout the hospital, automation of workflows and plenty of opportunities to restructure as needed. One result of this streamlining is that the average length of stay will be reduced to around 2 days, which is great.
Construction is ever-changing and will continue to do so. A construction project of this scale is built over several years, and by the time it's completed in 2019, many elements will have already been replaced or relocated due to better and faster ways of doing things. The pace of change is so fast that the hospital will be in a constant state of flux.
It's impressive to look at from the outside, and you're struck by its sheer size when you drive past or walk around it, as we were lucky enough to do. But that's nothing compared to how impressive the work behind the construction is. There are big numbers and big sums of money being talked about, and it's hard to understand how it all runs as smoothly as it does.