Closing the gap between good intentions and realized potential of end-user involvement

Hospital building projects are highly complex and involve many different stakeholders. The physical lay-out of a hospital will affect the ability of healthcare personnel to perform their work and have consequences for patient safety, hence the involvement of end-users is crucial for project success. The inclusion and translation of perspectives and needs of end-users require a well-organized project planning process, with end-user involvement at every stage. However, earlier studies on end-user involvement are primarily based on the perspectives of designers, architects, contractors, facility and/or hospital management. This paper explores end-user involvement in a hospital building process from the end-user perspective in order to identify what barriers end-users face and concrete measures to overcome them. Data stems from interviews with 37 end-users of a hospital building project in Norway. The findings indicate that clarifying the role and level of end-user involvement, introducing a more agile and less fragmented project development strategy, interdisciplinary team building, and facilitation of input and feedback into project groups, are areas that can improve the value added by end-user involvement.