Advance on control and management of internal transport system for large-scale general hospital buildings

The control of internal transport system of large complex building which focuses on the convenience and comfort for pedestrians, is greatly different from urban traffic. Effective control of the overall internal transport system is essential to enhance the safety and convenience. However, ongoing changes in population coupled with the economic development, mean that most of the control and management methods can quickly become dated or even have been unsuitable, leading to the overcrowding in large buildings, especially large-scale hospitals in China. Considerable research on urban traffic has been carried out, whereas the internal transport system has rarely been investigated. This paper thus seeks to develop a practical and efficient methodology to allow current internal transport system to be updated to alleviate the congestion. For this purpose, we undertake a comparison between internal transport system and urban traffic. Then, large-scale hospital's transport system is considered. Features of patient flow, clinic service process, and interior layout are analyzed in detail. Finally, based on these analyses, improved management and control methods of hospital's transport system are presented. The methodology developed in this paper appears to be useful for many applications such as the internal transport system of the shopping mall due to the development of cities.