Rwanda Hospital Design Standards

Poor health infrastructure will continue to expose society to threats of epidemic and social injustice. The Ebola outbreak in Liberia and Sierra Leone is a perfect example of a fragile healthcare system and the risks it poses. Rwanda is slated to build several district hospitals in the coming years. MASS has developed a set of principles driven by design to improve health outcomes that can be adapted to the specific needs of each site’s context and programmatic requirements. An individual exemplary facility is not enough to achieve systemic change, and prototypical buildings poorly implemented can cause disastrous effects. Creating a model of high-quality infrastructure that can be easily adapted to the context and needs of the individual project can have a transformative effect on the way health infrastructure is developed globally. Better design and construction processes will produce not only better health outcomes, but economic, educational, environmental, and emotional impacts to the community. The MoH Typical Plans will become a global model of implementing a framework that can adapt to the specific context and hospital needs and improving health outcomes.