Henderson, J R; Ruikar, K and Dainty, A R J (2010) The need for embedding 'learning' in healthcare projects. In: Egbu, C (ed.) Proceedings of 26th Annual ARCOM Conference, 6-8 September 2010, Leeds, UK.
Abstract
Service delivery in the healthcare sector is ultimately affected by the built infrastructure provided to support it. In order for a hospital environment to function optimally, there is a need to investigate how a learning culture can be nurtured within the design, construction and occupancy of healthcare facilities so that its effect on the healing process of patients can be managed. A large focus of attention currently within the research domain concerning knowledge management and organizational learning within construction is centred on learning from buildings in use and post occupancy evaluation (POE). Interestingly, however, there has been little focus on capturing lessons learnt from the construction phase of projects and even less on how these lessons can be fed back to form inputs into the design stage of future projects. Particular opportunities lie in capturing `lessons learnt' from projects in relation to the build quality of the final product. This could be particularly important in informing the future buildability of healthcare projects. The aim of this research is to examine how lessons learnt arising from specifically the construction phase of healthcare infrastructure projects can be captured and fed back to designers in particular and in some cases the client. This is in order to create a learning culture and help improve the quality of future healthcare facilities/infrastructure. This paper reports on a critical synthesis of the organizational learning literature, primarily focusing on identifying the potential benefits for embedding such a learning culture in project-based environments specifically concentrated within a healthcare infrastructure context. Through this literature synthesis a significant case for improving project-based organizational learning within healthcare infrastructure is provided and recommendations for the need for further empirical investigation are made.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | buildability; feedback; healthcare; knowledge; learning; post occupancy evaluation |
| Index terms: | designer, post-occupancy evaluation, buildability, service delivery, built infrastructure, organizational learning, knowledge management, infrastructure project, construction phase, design stage, investigation |
| Subjects: | profession, data collection methods, professional practice, evaluation methods, project delivery, service delivery, professional development, infrastructure and transport systems, design efficiency, building construction |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Quality Management, Project Management, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Information Management, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here