CallisonRTKL Collaborates With PODS on Isolation Units for COVID-19 Patients

Global architecture firm CallisonRTKL may have come up with a new way to treat people with COVID-19.

CallisonRTKL has announced a new collaboration with moving and storage giant PODS (Portable On Demand Storage), which has a partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), to develop containers that can be repurposed into isolation units. The intent is for alternative healthcare facilities to use each “container” for treating those who have tested positive for coronavirus.

Per PODS, USACE developed, tested, and approved converting PODS’ 12- and 16-foot containers into self-contained rooms with hospital beds that could be used for COVID-19 patients.

[Photo: Courtesy PODS]

CallisonRTKL is based in Baltimore, but Senior Vice President Jim Henry and his team on the firm’s healthcare practice have been leading COVID-19 recovery efforts out of Dallas.

In response to the pandemic, Henry AIA, EDAC and the group had been creating documents about open space design, which would involve converting an event center into a large open ward, and closed room scenarios, which include hotel and dorm room conversion.

Henry says he learned there are staffing and material management benefits for the open bay option. But, the benefits of the single room scenario were far better, especially when it came to isolating patients to protect against airborne infection.

In working with PODS, CallisonRTKL created self-contained patient care units out of existing POD storage containers. The result was a rapid response airborne infection isolation room (AIIR) that could help protect those who are caring for infected patients.

[Photos: Courtesy PODS]

Each enclosed patient care environment provides enhanced clinical staff protection, CallisonRTKL told Dallas Innovates, because it minimized exposure from direct patient contact. Every POD unit was also modified with individual environmental control, normal and emergency power, negative air pressure systems, and HEPA filtered exhaust.

For instance: the front wall of the container has a full-glass door and sidelights so patients have maximum visibility. The seamless flooring installed allows for proper housekeeping and surface disinfection, and multiple levels of lighting were installed within the container to keep patients comfortable. That includes overbed lighting for daytime settings and wall-mounted night lights.

There are also HVAC systems that CallisonRTKL said are designed to provide horizontal air flow, introducing air from the front and discharging it behind the patient at the back of the container.

Each prototype was designed and constructed in a warehouse in one week. Once constructed, they can be rapidly deployed, too—it takes 3 minutes to install each POD on-site with plug-and-play electrical service connections.

So far, six PODs have been deployed in the field inside a tent at United Medical Center in Washington D.C. According to CallisonRTKL, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was impressed with the innovation, speed of implementation, and high quality of the final product.