Abstract
The planning of supply and distribution system for materials is a major factor in making a well-organized hospital building or building complex function. It is very important that these systems not be treated as an afterthought but be considered during the earliest stage in the planning of hospital buildings. This is the first report of the studies on the planning of hospital buildings through the analysis of the functional relationships to materials supply and distribution system. First of all, This paper describes the total investigation into the actural conditions on which, for each department in two hospitals (791 Beds, 275 Beds), how much material is transported per day, how often, and where. Secondly, we showed the actural conditions on volume of materials and the frequency that will be transported per day, supposing that the hospital buildings might be organized by supply departments and the others; the supply departments include sterile supplies, the pharmacy, dietary services, the laundry, general stores, the blood bank, and so on. As the results, we were able to propose that the flows of materials in hospitals are classified into two major groups, : 1) Group one consists of the cyclical flows of materials among supply departments and the others. These are mainly regular-and grouped-transports. 2) Group two consists of the flows of materials between two points or departments other than supply departments. These are mainly extra- and small materials-transports.
