Richmond Hospital Pharmacy Renovation and Clean Room Upgrade

The Richmond Hospital Pharmacy renovation facilitated upgrades to meet the latest standards for safe operators under the Guidelines of the College of Pharmacists of BC. The renovation ensured the continual provision of safe pharmaceuticals to the hospital.

Project Details

  • LocationRichmond, BC
  • SectorHealth Care
  • Size200 m2
  • Completed2019

Project Team

  • ClientVancouver Coastal Health Authority
  • Firm of RecordKirsten Reite Architecture (KRA)
  • ConstructionSeaforth Construction
  • PhotographyLila Bujold

A comprehensive redesign of the RH Pharmacy space provided an increase in functional area and the necessary upgrades to accommodate new work stations, staff space and a narcotics holding room to support dispensing activities. In addition, new clean rooms were designed to meet ISO Class 5 and 7 standards, including IV drug staging, preparation and compounding rooms. 

Clean rooms provide a pressure-controlled environment that allows for compounding, packaging and preparing sterile and non-sterile drugs.
Clean room classification is determined by the quantity and size of particles per cubic meter of air. The air-tight environments consist of ante-rooms, pass-through cabinets and various other design criteria that maintain pressurization of the environment.

To ensure the clean rooms at Richmond Hospital met ISO classification standards extensive upgrades to the HVAC system were required, including finding an appropriate home for the new 18,000 lb Air Handling Unit and routing air to and from the clean room and the unit itself.

DLA’s founding principal, Danielle Lawson, was integrally involved in all aspects of the project from 2017 through to its completion in 2019, while an employee of KRA.