An assessment of briefs used for designing healthcare environments : a survey in Sweden

• The brief is a central document in decision making during the early stages of the planning and construction (briefing/programming) of healthcare environments. Thus, the demand on the content and quality of these documents is high. This study aimed to assess the content and quality of initial briefs developed in Sweden to obtain an up-to-date picture of current practices of writing project statements in the early stages of designing healthcare environments. A study of 29 initial briefs was performed with a new instrument called the Content and Quality of Brief Instrument (CQB-I). The results showed that, in many cases, the documentation in the briefs was incomplete and that the information did not adequately address users’ needs. In addition, the briefs often did not include any measurable outcomes or explicitly evidence-based information. This study’s findings have implications for identifying areas for improvement in design teams’ documentation practices. Assessment can have a real impact on the quality of briefs and can raise awareness of the need to improve the briefing process itself. The present study is one of the first to assess the content and quality of briefs and provides a starting point for both practitioners and future researchers to explore the role of briefs in briefing process quality improvement.  

Nyckelord

Briefing

building design

healthcare

assessment

quality improvement

Hälsa och välfärd

Health and Welfare

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)