Planning and designing of an amputee rehabilitation facility

Amputation is one of the oldest problems of the mankind. Amputee rehabilitation refers to rehabilitation of a patient after amputation. It is an important health care profession that provides treatment to individuals to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement potential and function throughout life. This paper describes the basic key planning and design criteria which should be considered in order to design a typical amputee rehabilitation facility, besides developing the functional quality while controlling construction and operating costs of the local amputee rehabilitation facilities. To perform the comparison study concerning with amputee rehabilitation facilities standard design, field visits were made to the four major amputee rehabilitation centers in Baghdad in order to satisfy the aim of this study. These centers are Al-Wasity teaching hospital, Baghdad Institute, Baghdad Artificial Limbs Center, and Sadder Al-Qanat factory. Throughout these field visits information were collected about their construction, units, workshops and other parameters affecting both of the prosthesis manufacturing process and the patient occupational therapy. Also the organization of required equipments and access to adjacent spaces and should also be considered in the design of these facilities. This was satisfied through making comparison study of what existed locally according to the recommended standards that may be used to achieve a safe, functional, supportive and effective environment for patients and staff members who are involved with the amputee rehabilitation facilities in our country, Iraq.