The Use of Formal Methods for Decision Making in the Planning Phase of Healthcare Facilities

The Pre-Project Phase of building construction manages the communication between client organization, user groups and designers. Disconnects and miscommunication in this phase may result in a product that does not fulfill their expectations. Based on literature review, three methods are introduced in order to streamline the communication and improve its precision: a method for criteria management, a method to rationalize criteria in relation to the design organizational instruments, and a method for decision with multiple criteria through the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. The methods were applied in a discrete decision problem of the Pre-Project Phase of a healthcare facility. This problem concerns the choice between a central medication room and patient room storage cabinets – the Nurservers. The Nurservers Case Study is used to investigate the claim that these rational methods increase efficiency, precision and satisfaction of the stakeholders and to evaluate their applicability in the Pre-Project Phase’s daily practices.