Bergman Clinics, Rijswijk, the Netherlands

The need

Bergman Clinics is a large chain of private clinics in the Netherlands undertaking scheduled procedures including orthopaedic procedures, eye surgery, skin improvement and aesthetic surgery. Its orthopaedic mobility care clinic in Rijswijk, the Netherlands, required extensive renovation work and as a result of an increase in patient numbers from the region it covers, a need for increased clinical and surgical capacity had also been identified. It was decided that the renovation and expansion of the clinic, which was expected to take around six months, would be done at the same time.

Closing such a busy and successful clinic for this length of time was not an option for Bergman, and the company investigated several options for managing demand in the meantime, including the possibility of renting clinical capacity from neighbouring hospitals. However, it soon became evident that this would not be practical so Bergman’s management approached Young Medical to build a temporary operating theatre complex.

The plan

We gladly accepted the challenge of building an operating theatre complex, containing two operating theatres and a nursing ward where patients could stay for one to two nights, within a time period of just three months.

It was decided that the temporary clinic would be located on a leased site within the municipality of the Hague. The facility was to have a footprint of 1,000 m2 and the space had to meet the strictest requirements and specifications for orthopaedic surgery procedures, since hip and knee replacement surgery would account for the lion’s share of the operations conducted in the temporary clinic.

The solution

In consultation with the clinic’s management, a temporary clinic was designed to include two operating theatres, a preparation room, a recovery room, a sterile storage area, changing rooms, a consultancy room and a staff room. In addition, a nursing department containing nine two-bed wards with en-suite bathrooms, a waiting room, dispensary, reception, offices and a dirty utility was added.

The operating theatres were equipped with the most modern surgical lamps, pendants and monitors and offered sufficient space to perform the procedures adequately. The operating theatres had to meet the most stringent requirements in line with the latest Dutch guidelines for a protected area (VCCN RL8). The entire operating theatre was also tested according to the ISO 5 standard to ensure CFU in the air was <10/m3. This created a safe, ultra-clean operating room, where optimal patient care could be performed.

The outcome

We delivered a fully operational temporary clinic in June 2019, just three months after the initial order was issued – on time and to the requirements specified by Bergman. The clinic ended up using the temporary facility for six and a half months to perform surgery while the main clinic building was being refurbished and extended.

Both the medical teams and the patients found the temporary facility a pleasant place to be treated in and work in. Frequent comments that the temporary Healthcare Space provided a professional working environment with all the convenience, logistics and facilities expected of such a clinic were received. While the facility was in use, surgery was performed four days per week, to allow patients treated on Thursdays to return home on Saturday, and on average six patients were treated per theatre per day.