{"id":52825,"date":"2020-05-22T07:30:59","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T05:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.santpol.edu.es\/que-es-y-como-funciona-un-hotel-salut-durante-el-covid-19\/"},"modified":"2022-05-31T15:17:33","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T13:17:33","slug":"what-is-a-medicalized-hotel-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.santpol.edu.es\/en\/blog\/what-is-a-medicalized-hotel-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a “Medicalized Hotel” during Covid-19 and how does it work?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]During the Covid-19 crisis the hotel sector has joined forces with the health sector to tackle the pandemic. The Meli\u00e0 Barcelona Sarri\u00e0 was one of the hotels that was turned into a “Medicalized Hotel”, in this case depending on the Vall d’Hebron Hospital. The process of transformation, the protocols and the experiences lived have been some of the aspects explained in the webinar organized by EUHT StPOL in which Enrique Aranda, General Director of the Meli\u00e1 Hotels Barcelona cluster and former student of EUHT StPOL; and Sonia Cort\u00e9s, Director of Economic Resources of the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, have participated together with Llu\u00eds Serra, General Manager of EUHT StPOL and President of<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>EUHOFA International.<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

From a five-star hotel to “Medicalized Hotel” in three days<\/strong><\/h2>\n

“After a few days in the hospital we needed those patients who were better off to leave the facilities free for the admission of new patients,” explains Sonia Cort\u00e9s, Director of Economic Resources at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital. Thais was the reason it was proposed the option to join forces with the hotels.<\/p>\n

In fact, as Cort\u00e9s explains, the model proposed by Vall d’Hebron Hospital was a medicalized hotel: “This meant that when the patient was discharged from the hospital in an acute situation, we had hotel beds where he would be isolated – as he was still positive in Covid-19 – and controlled at the health level”.<\/p>\n

The Vall d’Hebron Hospital<\/a> is the largest in Barcelona and it was convenient to have a very large hotel. And so, after meetings with different agents, the Hotel Meli\u00e1 Barcelona Sarri\u00e0 became a “Medicalized Hotel” in three days. “The last client left on a Thursday afternoon and on Sunday we opened the medicalized hotel” remembers Enrique Aranda, General Manager of the Meli\u00e1 Barcelona Sarri\u00e0 cluster and who has been and is running the medicalized hotel during the Covid-19 pandemic.[\/vc_column_text][vc_raw_html]JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwd2lkdGglM0QlMjI4MCUyNSUyMiUyMHNyYyUzRCUyMmh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tJTJGZW1iZWQlMkYydjM0WXRmeHJ6VSUyMiUyMGZyYW1lYm9yZGVyJTNEJTIyMCUyMiUyMGFsbG93JTNEJTIyYWNjZWxlcm9tZXRlciUzQiUyMGF1dG9wbGF5JTNCJTIwZW5jcnlwdGVkLW1lZGlhJTNCJTIwZ3lyb3Njb3BlJTNCJTIwcGljdHVyZS1pbi1waWN0dXJlJTIyJTIwYWxsb3dmdWxsc2NyZWVuJTNFJTNDJTJGaWZyYW1lJTNF[\/vc_raw_html][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

The transformation of the hotel spaces<\/strong><\/h2>\n

“The clients are the same, the different thing are the circumstances,” says Aranda. Circumstances to which they have had to adapt and reconvert not only in terms of spaces, but also protocols and procedures. “The hospital is a world that those of us who come from the hotel sector did not know and to which we had to adapt quickly,” he explains.<\/p>\n

Some examples that Aranda recalls: disabling the locks on the room doors using cardboard and American tape so that “simply by pushing” the toilets could open them and thus avoid contact; leaving the minimum essential in each room as a matter of cleanliness; fitting out a clean and dirty area of the hotel as far as contact with the Covid-19 is concerned and converting all double rooms into single ones. “In addition, beds were needed for the pavilions of the Vall d’Hebron Hospital so the 203 beds in double rooms converted to single rooms could be used for this,” explains Aranda.<\/p>\n

The usual processes in a hotel also underwent changes. For example:<\/p>\n