Rasheedat Bukola Jaji. MSEM Summer Utilizing BIM in Healthcare Engineering and Planning

Transcription

1 Rasheedat Bukola Jaji MSEM Summer 2018 Utilizing BIM in Healthcare Engineering and Planning 1

2 Keywords: BIM, Clinical, Engineering, Medical, Equipment Abstract Hospital facility projects are becoming more technology driven and integrated to meet the needs of healthcare systems. Critical technical information and details are often missed in the healthcare facility construction drawings due to the complexity and numerous requirements of the project and its participants. Integrating Autodesk Revit, CTC, and drofus, three healthcare applicable planning software systems, allows equipment information to be more centralized and accessible for all involved parties, and produces quality deliverables that captured the technical needs for medical equipment planned in a new facility. Implementing this method will not only catch equipment coordination issues earlier in the project delivery process, it will reduce significant schedule delays and unnecessary costly corrections, resulting in a more efficient and predictable outcome. This practice will deliver a more successful healthcare project and be one big step forward in the design and advancement of the patient care experience. 2

3 Background The growth in complexity and utilization of healthcare has expanded the healthcare industry market immensely. Multidisciplinary parties are getting involved in the earlier stages of design and planning, but there are still areas of expertise that have not yet been designated in healthcare projects. The growing demand in patient care has formed a market specific for medical equipment planning. For new facility projects, 15 20% of the project budget is allocated to medical equipment procurement (Kemper, 2010). This is the largest investment in a project, next to construction cost, and can affect the budget, schedule, and overall project success significantly. Errors in the project are inevitable. In fact, mistakes are part of assessment and improvement process of project delivery. Making a correction or change earlier in the project delivery process typically costs less, causes less schedule delays, and is easier to manage compared to issues that arise towards the end of the project. Figure 1 displays a general plot of the effect decision changes can have on cost throughout the project deliver process. Figure 2 displays projects internal cost from change orders that have occurred, and the time it took to correct them in the field during the construction phase. There have been tremendous strides in developing tools that apply to these complex project detailed needs and can aid in the prevention of some of these late changes, specifically Figure 1. The relationship between the project delivery process timeline, and cost and ability to make changes is inverse (Kemper 2010) for equipment planning. One of the greatest evolving 3

4 Cost (Dollars) strategies in healthcare planning is the use of Building Information Modeling, or BIM, to merge equipment technical information and locations into one model. Integration of BIM applicable planning software is advantageous for increasing the quality of healthcare equipment plans and deliverable used to construct the facility. In this research, we selected Revit, CTC application, and drofus to develop a deliverable that captures the financial and technical needs of medical equipment planned in a new facility. The purpose of using these BIM software is to correct these potential changes and errors in the model before construction documents are issued in order to better maintain the project budget and schedule Construction Medical Equipment Change Orders Delay (Days) Figure 2. Data collected from construction change orders related to medical equipment field changes. 4

5 Method and Analysis We selected three BIM software to develop a deliverable to encompass the financial, technical, and spatial information needed for medical equipment planning in a new facility. The primary software chosen was Revit Autodesk, a software application to support BIM design workflow needs for new facility projects. Revit s visual renderings and assorted tools make it useable Figure 3. User Interface of Revit Software (Autodesk, 2016) for planning purposes for architects, engineers, and in this case equipment planners. Figure 3 displays the user interface of a Revit project which samples the floor plan, 3D rendering, and data schedule all encompassed in a single project workspace. Advantages in using Revit include developing a model for visualizing work flow in prospected floor plan, interpreting spatial needs of equipment in a room, and itemizing every detail into a spreadsheet or schedule for quantification. The Revit software serves as a strong foundation tool for producing data intensive equipment plans. Many add-in applications and features have been built by external software companies to enhance the base model s ability. Two Revit integrated add-ins were selected to enhance the model specifically for equipment planning purposes. BIM Project Suite is one of the products from CTC selected to use in improving the equipment planning process. Its feature, Spreadsheet Link, was used to import large amounts of equipment technical data into the Revit model. The other Revit add-in, drofus, is a product made in 2011 by a Norwegian consultant company, Nysoko, for hospital project planning 5

6 used all around the world. The program integrates with Revit for BIM collaboration for the architect, engineer, and construction team to design and plan concurrently. DRofus s ability to centralize the data and share information to significant parties in a project make drofus diverse and applicable for multiparties involved in project planning. Results Figure 4a is an example of an equipment family in Revit that host visual and physical properties. DRofus was implemented to build the database that incorporated all the critical technical information necessary, and was transferred exported into excel, and transferred into CTC s Spreadsheet Link. Spreadsheet Link was utilized to import all the technical information desired from the drofus database into selected equipment families that is specific to each equipment in the Revit model. Figure 4b shows the result of utilizing the Spreadsheet Link with the database exported from drofus. The equipment family parameters confirm the existence of electrical, plumbing, or data needs for that piece of equipment in the properties table. We were then able to create filters from the imported parameters, and produce 3 types of deliverable data plans that identified the equipment location, electrical and telecommunication needs and plumbing needs of the equipment (Figure 5). 6

7 Figure 4a. User Interface of Revit Equipment Family in equipment plans. Figure 4b. Properties Table of Revit Equipment Family with technical information imported from drofus via Spreadsheet Link 7

8 Figure 5a. Figure 5b. Figure 5c. Figure 5. Floor plan deliverable displaying equipment requiring electrical (5a.), telecommunication (5b.), and plumbing (5c.) utilities. 8

9 Discussion The practice of utilizing BIM for equipment planning is seemingly inexpensive to implement in comparison to the savings of the project as a whole. Yet, a survey conducted by Healthcare Facilities Management and ASHE (American Society for Healthcare Engineering) indicated about 62% of healthcare executives (Figure 8) do not utilize this method in their facility projects. Building information modeling has been around since the 80s and has not quite trickled down to the project specific practices of equipment planning. The concept is still fairly new to hospital planners, and may be intimidating to initiate. Although the importance of Figure 8. Majority of healthcare executives do not implement BIM in project delivery (HFM Magazine 2016) early coordination has been justified in finances and efficiency, the idea is still approached with much skepticism by project team participants. The purpose of this tool is not to complicate the preparation and planning of the project, but to facilitate the process and improve the end results. Utilizing BIM in healthcare equipment planning will deliver a more effective healthcare project and advance the design and construction of patient care. 9