BIM & Health Seminar Outcomes

Andrew Bagnall showed how modelling of service systems was achieved in complex laboratories for example.

A second immediate benefit was the detailed coordination of services with the architectural and structural sub-models, for a long time the principal weakness in hospital documentation (and in other building types!). 

Laing O'Rourke were emphatic that modelling was a high priority in their business strategy to deliver buildings with much reduced or no errors, fewer cost variations and quicker construction due to the certainty of documentation. This general risk reduction effect also opened up new ways for off-site fabrication, better quality - in the factory - manufacturing and cleaner operations on site.

But how are the models developed by the design team? Product information is currently a significant weakness and constrains automation and advanced manufacturing operations for example. 

How do health clients and facility managers get the asset information needed for better and reliable operational management? Darren Tims quoted The Ark Project where Thiess have delivered a full BIM model of the facility with all services OMM data associated with service systems.

A new approach is needed for health briefing...

And the discussion made clear the current inadequate nature of the format of the health building guidelines. The method of providing as-built facility data for NSW Health facilities was also text based and cumbersome.

What an enormous difference would be made if these both were exchanged in BIM format instead of pdf documents and 2D drawings. What is needed to achieve this outcome? - a national consensus on the benefits of BIM and a commitment to support a new process for procuring and managing health facilities.

Russell Lowe's final presentation gave another insight in to the opportunities of a different form of modelling - gaming, avatar based environments. Russell demonstrated live the navigation of the virtual environment and highlighted just how fast this technology is moving. This new environment provided a means of checking, simulating, improving work processes where several staff have to work collaboratively. Health  experts were seen to quickly understand and respond to the "proposed" design; the avatar based modelling engaged participants who gave rapid and pertinent feedback and appraisal. 

If you'd like to download the presentations visit the CHAA Web site here.

Next workshop

What could not be covered properly in this workshop was the asset management phase of the facility. Although it is expected that Clients are the main beneficiary of BIM and integarted working, few clients have asked for this. What is hindering wider usage?

This and related topics will be targetted in a future workshop.