Decisions
\nmade at the early stages of a hospital project can have a huge impact on its
\nlife cycle value. To make sure that a hospital will be a good investment, its
\nfuture users should be involved in helping set out the design requirements. A
\nFinnish team of experts wanted to see if they could improve the process and set
\nup an experiment to see how it could be done digitally.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Currently, over During the Design \u201cIn 2017 Gordionpro<\/a> is a systems engineering and requirements management consultancy. For the experimentation project, they partnered with Gravicon<\/a>, an AEC software firm, and Granlund<\/a>, a MEP design consultancy. Both had solid experience in healthcare design and its information management. 3D Talo<\/a> joined in to provide virtual models for simulation purposes.<\/p>\n The project The project team considered concept design as a good starting point for the hospital requirements management. However, they found little support for that approach in the professional literature and design guidelines. Teemu Kurkela<\/strong>, an architect at JKMM, had studied concept design over five years ago and he suggested that concept design should constitute a discrete phase in hospital construction. Unfortunately, his idea has not yet caught on.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a requirements The project The outcome There is no The Physical, life-sized \u201cYou can Using the The pilot \u201cA new
\none billion euros are budgeted to hospital construction and renovation in
\nFinland. Globally, the sum is around US$400 billion. You would imagine that the
\ndesign for such large investments would be very efficient from the start. Unfortunately,
\nthat is not the case.<\/p>\n
\ndesign phase, doctors, specialists, nurses, and other stakeholders take part in
\nworkshops in which they express their needs and requirements. For a large
\nhospital project, 40 to 100 workshops are the norm. The work is done with a
\nvariety of tools, with sticky notes being the predominant technique.<\/p>\n
\nprofessionals seldom facilitate the workshops. Further, without a systematic model
\nand method, it\u2019s extremely difficult to manage the multitude of requirements.
\nEven worse, the outcome may not serve designers as it should.<\/p>\nSetting Up the Experiment<\/h2>\n
![\"Pekka](\"https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Pekka-Kahkonen-bw.jpg\")
\nand 2018, we did a definition project on the strategic requirements for Lappi
\nCentral Hospital. During the process, we discovered several opportunities and
\nchallenges regarding hospital design. We decided to start a project to
\nexperiment with our ideas,\u201d says Pekka
\nK\u00e4hk\u00f6nen<\/strong>, Partner and Solution Designer at Gordionpro.<\/p>\n
\ngot funding from the governmental KIRA-digi program and was completed by the
\nend of 2018. The project team carried out several interviews, developed a process
\nand tools for requirements management, and piloted their system in a number of
\nhospitals.<\/p>\nThe New Process Model<\/h2>\n
\nmanagement point of view, concepts are essential. Requirements, per se, are
\nunconnected. We must understand the context and concepts that they belong to,\u201d
\nK\u00e4hk\u00f6nen explains.<\/p>\n
\nteam defined a new, early stage design process with the following phases:<\/p>\n\n
\nof the process is a collection of well-organized requirements, ranging from
\nstrategic goals and project scope to economic and functional requirements as
\nwell as healthcare results. In addition, there are requirements for space
\ndistribution and use, adaptability, and access.<\/p>\n![\"Hospital](\"https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RM_Model-2400x1350.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nTools for Information
\nManagement<\/h2>\n
\nindustry standard for the representation and classification of requirement
\ninformation, which currently tends to be stored in Word documents, Power Point
\nslides, and spreadsheets.<\/p>\n
\nexperimentation team devised an information model for hospital requirements
\nmanagement to help manage the information and any changes during the whole life
\ncycle of a hospital. The project team used Gravicon\u2019s ModelSpace as the
\npractical tool for implementing the model.<\/p>\n
\nmodels of hospital rooms are used to verify their usability and dimensioning.
\nHowever, building a similar model of an operating room is costly. Virtual
\nreality is a cost-efficient alternative. 3D Talo had previously created virtual
\noperating rooms for Kuopio Hospital and their VR skills came into use in the current
\nexperimentation as well.<\/p>\n
\nuse prototypes and demos to check out how well specific requirements have been
\ntaken into account in the design,\u201d says K\u00e4hk\u00f6nen. \u201cThat\u2019s why we wanted to
\ninclude VR in the project.\u201d<\/p>\nBenefits for All
\nStakeholders<\/h2>\n
\nnew process and digital tools, owners can be more confident that a hospital
\nmeets its strategic goals. Users and other stakeholders can have their voices
\nheard, adding their relevant requirements to the other requirements, which are systematically
\ndocumented for designers to consider. Designers will, thus, have sufficient
\ninformation as a starting point and in a usable format when they start the
\ndesign process.<\/p>\n
\ntesting with hospitals has even continued after the initial experimentation
\nproject ended. The pilots will continue to give valuable feedback about the new
\nprocess and indicate what kind of tool development is needed.<\/p>\n
\ngeneration of hospital designers is emerging. I think that the design culture
\nand tools will change accordingly,\u201d K\u00e4hk\u00f6nen concludes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n