Process-orientated requirements planning of hospitals

Today the health care sector is changing. The number of hospitals is declining and major indicators have changed. The number of cases treated in a hospital is rising while the mean residence time and the accommodation capacity are decreasing. As reasons for this change a multitude of Megatrends can be recognized, which are challenges for the future, like the demographic change, new medical technologies, the change of hospitals from governmental health care facilities to commercial enterprises and the positioning in the health care network or new information- and communication technologies. Therefore operating and economic efficiency are important factors. Typically for hospitals are the different areas of use. Between this areas there are multifaceted spatial, organizational and functional dependences. This is why the functioning of a hospital real estate strongly depends on the connection of these areas, the efficiency of the building structure and the adjustment from the property to the business activities. An essential tool for the development of such an adjusted hospital real estate is the requirements planning. Requirements planning as the basic concept for the constructional progress and building design can be health care specific and based on optimized process flows. Aim of the study is to develop a new method for requirements planning under consideration of the changing conditions for hospitals. To solve this task the following steps are projected: First existing requirements planning methods are analysed and transferred into a reference analysis. This analysis includes the investigation of phasing the process, work stages, activities and tools. In the next step the AHP method (Analytic Hierarchy Process) is used to value the assets and drawbacks of the individual methods relating to the development of hospital facilities. The AHP enables to solve complex, unstructured problems with many parameters or influence factors, which are not quantifiable. Within the AHP the evaluation of parameters is based on a decision hierarchy. In the following step qualitative expert interviews are used to verify this hierarchy, to clarify which influences are relevant to the economic feasibility and the processes, how important they are and which are the resulting requirements. Finally the presented approach will help to develop a specific method for the requirements planning of hospitals.