A decision support framework for HCAI risk assessment and design briefing of healthcare facilities

Healthcare facilities are complex and technologically driven built environments therefore controlling healthcare associated infections (HCAI) is a major challenge not only for the UK's NHS services but also for designers and architects. The problem is the very large number of issues that have to be considered and the difficulty of specifying best practice therefore designing the right facility as many of the values are subjective. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) enables the prioritisation of objectives, an understanding of the links between choices and the potential conflicts between them. HCAI-QFD tool has been developed exploiting the features of QFD, but tailored to the needs of the HCAI control practices. By using a preselected knowledge base of issues and technologies that can be used to provide solutions, a decision framework has been developed to enable the user to access, at any point in the process, additional information from linked knowledge sources and the WWW so enabling them to be informed of the issues. The result is that the user can explore each area in depth. When a decision has been made the user can record the details, which are captured in the tool database that is then used to enhance the final report and so produce a full specification of HCAI control issues and requirements. This can be used for HCAI risk assessment and design briefing of healthcare facilities.