The new Klinikum Klagenfurt on the shores of Woerthersee has a clear guiding principle: “The focus is on people”. 4,480 employees – 540 of whom are doctors – attend to the health of its patients. The hospital’s motto is also reflected in its spacious and bright architecture.
The heart of the hospital, the Surgical Medical Center (CMZ), is located inside a 60,000 square meter park. The emergency room, outpatient department, and wards with 627 beds are located right next to it. All of the internal medicine and surgical departments have been converted into competence centers.
The 36 X-ray rooms that the patients are screened in are also located here. Both patients and hospital staff are always able to maintain eye contact through the large viewing windows. This instills mutual trust. At the same time, these panes protect the employees who operate X-ray therapy devices from harmful radiation.
The viewing panes were manufactured from the special glass RD 50 from SCHOTT. “50” stands for a density of at least 5.05 g of lead oxide per cubic centimeter of glass. Lead oxide actually absorbs radiation. Therefore, the thin and colorless glass pane offers the highest possible protection from the gamma and X-rays used in medicine, technology and research.
The panes used here are up to 780 x 2150 mm in size. Many of these were manufactured as laminated safety, insulating, or sound proof glass. Mobile protection walls for use in the outpatient ward were also manufactured to complement the 36 firmly installed windows.
“The market for radiation shielding glass is extremely competitive,” notes Patrick Holota, Sales Manager on Architecture for SCHOTT Austria. “Thanks to our fast service, high flexibility and skilled local partners, we have been able to compete quite successfully in recent years and even succeeded in installing our special glass in Austria’s largest hospital project.”
SCHOTT is present with its own sales office in Vienna and also works closely with local partners. For instance, the mobile radiation protection walls were processed by Julius Fritsche GmbH, a company based in Salzburg. Glas Gasperlmair GesmbH from Wagrain supplied the glass for the windows and door glazing made of radiation shielding glass.
