Union Village: The Value Of Early Input From End Users
A vital component of a successful integrated project delivery (IPD) approach involves early input from end users. For the UHS Henderson Hospital project, now open and part of the in-progress Union Village health village in Henderson, Nev., directors, department leaders, facility managers, and nurses and doctors from the other Valley Health System hospitals in Las Vegas helped guide the design team down the right path. The effort also helped to make all end users feel that they were a valuable part of the project.
Each users’ interactions with the project team ranged from informal interviews to full participation in design and construction meetings.
Prior to collaborating with end users, it was important that the project team clearly defined the budget behind each of the hospital spaces as well as the financial status of the entire project. Sharing this information allowed end users to prioritize needs over wants, a move particularly applicable for projects under relatively strict budget constraints.
Once the preliminary user collaboration was complete, the project team gained an understanding of needs, wants, and any special concerns. These three categories were recorded for every space, establishing criteria that the end users could review at the end of the project to see that the project team considered their input—for instance, what type of equipment and fixtures did the end users prefer?
After the criteria was established and recorded, the design team began designing the various spaces. Once substantial progress had been made, the review process repeated itself. Different end users would have different opinions, but the design team could only work to one set of criteria so it was important that the original end users participated in these subsequent reviews in order to facilitate progress.
With a robust program inclusive of end user input, a design team can deliver a project that solves problems instead of creating them. By following the process above, the client and staff received a design tailored to their needs and that eliminated non value-added waste.
Danny Boh is a project executive with Southland Industries (Las Vegas). He can be reached at [email protected].