Ultra-rapid delivery of specialty field hospitals to combat COVID-19: Lessons learned from the Leishenshan Hospital project in Wuhan

With the outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic in Wuhan, China, in January 2020, the escalating number of confirmed and suspected cases overwhelmed the admission capacity of the designated hospitals. Two specialty field hospitals—Huoshenshan and Leishenshan—were designed, built and commissioned in record time (9–12 days) to address the outbreak. This study documents the design and construction of Leishenshan Hospital. Based on data collected from various sources such as the semi-structured interviews of key stakeholders from Leishenshan Hospital, this study found that adhering to a product, organization, and process (POP) modeling approach combined with building information modeling (BIM) allowed for the ultra-rapid creation, management, and communication of project-related information, resulting in the successful development of this fully functional, state-of-the-art infectious disease specialty hospital. With the unfortunate ongoing international COVID-19 outbreak, many countries and regions face similar hospital capacity problems. It is thus expected that the lessons learned from the design, construction and commissioning of Leishenshan Hospital can provide a valuable reference to the development of specialty field hospitals in other countries and regions.