An integrated framework for improving patient safety in hospital design

Abstract

Patient safety in hospital environment is a challenge that requires involvement of all stakeholders in healthcare delivery system. Despite the existence of different standards and recommendations that guide hospital design, considering patient safety in early planning of hospital design is rarely discussed in literature. Moreover, little researches have been adopted on combining quality function deployment (QFD) and logical framework approach (LFA) to identify significant criteria and prioritize them to employ in improvement measures of project implementation. Thus, a holistic robust framework that combines QFD and LFA is proposed to improve patient safety in hospital design. The role of QFD is to identify and prioritize a set of criteria that could impact on patient safety. LFA is used to develop a project plan that measures the progress of hospital design implementation through its life. A current project of small-scale private hospital has been utilized for verification. As a result, improvements are derived in the design include layout of departments, beds distribution, ventilation, and patient circulation. The article adds value to hospital design research by QFD-LFA framework.