Tech Column | Three-Level Process Design for Hospital Laboratories

Release time:

2025-11-05 10:13

The three-level process design for hospital laboratories refers to the step-by-step planning and optimization—moving from a macro to a micro level—of the flow paths for personnel, samples, supplies, and waste within the lab. At its core, this approach aims to ensure safety, enhance efficiency, and prevent cross-contamination.

These three levels are:

01 Level-1 Process (Macro Planning – Architectural Level)

Definition: The primary process addresses the laboratory's location within the entire hospital building, as well as its external connections to other key hospital departments, such as emergency services, patient wards, operating rooms, and outpatient clinics. This is the highest level of process planning.

Key considerations:

1. Location Selection: On which floor and in which area should the laboratory be located? It is generally recommended to place it near major sample sources (such as the emergency department, ICU, or operating rooms) to minimize the distance and time required for sample transportation.

2. Logistics Channels: How can we achieve efficient flow of both supplies and waste materials with the hospital’s central supply room, pharmacy, linen storage, medical waste temporary storage area, and more?

3. Personnel Entrances and Passages: How should the entrances and passages be arranged for laboratory staff, medical personnel, patients, and visitors? They should ensure separation of clean and contaminated areas, as well as segregation of people and goods flows.

4. Sample Receiving Window: Is the location of the receiving window convenient and efficient for external samples (e.g., those submitted from wards or outpatient clinics)?

5. Large Equipment Access: Have sufficiently large elevators, corridors, and doors been预留 to accommodate the future entry, installation, and replacement of major instruments and equipment, such as large-scale biochemical analyzers or assembly lines?

Simply put, the primary process determines which way the lab's "front door" faces and how it interacts with its "neighbors."

02 Secondary Process (Mesoscopic Planning – Laboratory’s Internal Functional Layout)

Definition: The secondary process involves the rational layout and interconnection of various functional areas—such as clinical testing, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, PCR, and office spaces—within the laboratory’s internal space, ensuring a smooth and efficient internal workflow.

Key considerations:

1. Functional Zoning: Clearly delineate the clean area (office, rest), buffer zone (changing room, preparation area), contamination zone (experimental core area), and high-risk area (PCR, microbiology), among others.

2. Workflow Design:

Sample flow: Sample reception → Pre-processing (centrifugation, aliquoting) → Delivery to various testing platforms → Sample storage. This pathway should be the shortest, most efficient, and free of backtracking.

Personnel flow: Staff should enter from the changing room directly to their respective workstations, ensuring their paths avoid crossing other unrelated experimental areas—especially avoiding any contamination zones.

The material flow: the supply route for clean items (such as reagents and consumables) from the warehouse to each experimental area.

3. Adjacency: Place modules with logical connections next to each other. For example:

The sample reception area should be located adjacent to the sample pre-processing area.

The pre-processing area should be located near the zones housing large automated instruments such as those for biochemistry and immunology.

The microbiology laboratory should be relatively independent and equipped with a biosafety cabinet.

The PCR laboratory must be arranged strictly according to the sequence of "Reagent Preparation Area → Sample Preparation Area → Amplification Area → Product Analysis Area," with air pressure differences decreasing unidirectionally to prevent contamination by amplification products.

Simply put, the secondary process is the "urban planning" within the laboratory—determining which functional areas go where and how they connect with one another.

03 Level 3 Process (Micro-Planning – Room Interior Layout)

Definition: The Level 3 process delves into the details of individual rooms or work units, meticulously planning for furniture, equipment, utilities, ventilation, and other specifics—ultimately creating a safe, efficient, and comfortable operational environment for staff.

Key considerations:

1. Ergonomics: Are the height and width of the workbench appropriate? Is the seat adjustable? Is the instrument’s operating interface within a comfortable range? Does it help avoid frequent bending and turning?

2. Equipment Placement: Does the arrangement order of instruments and equipment align with the operational workflow? Are sufficient spaces reserved between adjacent devices for maintenance and heat dissipation?

3. Access Points for Water, Electricity, and Gas: Do the locations and quantities of power outlets, network interfaces, purified water connections, compressed air lines, and vacuum pump interfaces meet the equipment requirements and ensure convenient usage? Have potential tripping hazards from tangled wires and hoses on the floor been avoided?

4. Storage Space: Are cabinets for commonly used reagents and consumables placed within easy reach? Are hazardous chemicals stored in dedicated safety cabinets?

5. Safety Facilities: Are emergency eyewash stations, shower units, fire extinguishers, biosafety cabinets, and fume hoods clearly visible, easily accessible, and positioned in a way that doesn’t obstruct main passageways?

Simply put, the Tier 3 process is a "fully finished" design that focuses on whether the workstation is user-friendly and safe for laboratory personnel.

Summary and Relationships

The relationship among the three: This is a top-down, step-by-step refinement process. The primary process defines the boundaries and framework for the secondary processes, while the secondary processes, in turn, provide the space and conditions for the tertiary processes to thrive. A successful laboratory design must be the perfect integration of these three elements—any oversight at the primary level could lead to inefficiencies in the lab’s overall operations, or even compromise safety.

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