Using BIM and Lean for Modelling Requirements in the Design of Healthcare Projects

Healthcare facilities are well known for their complexity. Frequent changes in healthcare processes, as well as the introduction of new technologies, demand changes in the internal layout and in the performance of buildings. Moreover, there are several stakeholders involved, with distinct and sometimes conflicting requirements, including medical staff, patients, visitors, cleaning and maintenance teams, among others. Some of those requirements have been translated into a complex set of norms and regulations. This paper reports the initial results of an ongoing investigation that has explored opportunities for improving value generation in the design and installation of healthcare facilities by using BIM and Lean concepts. The aim of this study is to understand how user requirements can be modelled to support decision making in the design process. Modelling requirements involves several steps: identification, structuring, establishing priorities, translating and representing in a BIM model. It depends not only on the individual user requirements but also on how some critical healthcare processes have been defined. The main contributions of this paper are concerned with the definition of how different types of requirements can be modelled to support the assessment of the healthcare building designs.