Benefits of a post-occupancy evaluation

Post-occupancy evaluations offer both short- and long-term benefits to help improve planning and design.

Image courtesy of ASHE

Feedback and evaluation are key functions of the continuous improvement of the physical environment. How does one test and evaluate whether the design and construction of a facility meets the goals and values of the organization? Does the environmental design and facility support the achievement of the new building?

A post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is a common process used to evaluate buildings systematically and rigorously after construction and occupancy to identify gaps, misalignments and opportunities for improvement.

The Center for Health Design and HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal are resources to help gain understanding of the process and provide research and examples of design knowledge gained by POEs. The Center has created a Clinic Design Post-Occupancy Toolkit containing a process guide, POE, patient questionnaire, staff questionnaire and an outcome data collection form.

The Center describes the following significant benefits of a POE:

• Short-term benefits include identifying and solving problems in the physical environment; fine-tuning the building (including space utilization) in response to user needs and feedback; and verifying the design functionality and the conformance with design requirements.
• Medium-term benefits include informing ongoing building adaptation due to changing organization needs; adjusting the repetitive design solution that can be used on a recurring basis; and testing innovative design solutions.
• Long-term benefits include facilitating decision-making or justification of future actions and expenditures; generating knowledge about the effects of building design on occupants and organizations; and improving the overall design quality of similar types of facilities.

HERD Journal provides field dissemination of significant research from POEs that contributes to best practices, evidence-based design and the field’s knowledge base. The articles listed in the sidebar box on this page contribute to the wider practice of health care design to evaluate and inform of lessons learned, provide opportunities for improvement and create evidence for the design of health care environments.

Who is responsible for conducting these evaluations? The architect often takes the lead to coordinate the POE after a year of occupancy. It would be beneficial for facilities managers to confirm whether that is part of their plan and collaboratively work together to make the feedback as valuable as possible not only for the architectural firm but also for the health care organization. An interdisciplinary team should be included to identify feedback from all areas, with a plan for improving areas that are unsatisfactory.

The design and construction of a new facility or a renovation is a living lab that can contribute to the overall knowledge and research that improves health care environments for the entire field. You can contribute to this foundational knowledge by reviewing HERD’s POE articles and providing your own research and evaluations as a designer or facilities manager to champion and disseminate your knowledge to others. Sharing your experience, lessons learned and opportunities for improvement can advance the science and evidence-based knowledge of health care facilities design.

Recommended research articles

The following research articles from HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal are recommended to readers seeking further information on post-occupancy evaluations:

• M. Jalalianhosseini, K. Freihoefer, A. Ochsner, et al., “Design of a Cancer Infusion Center: Results from a Pre- and Post-Occupancy Evaluation.”
• Z. Altizer, W.J. Canar, D. Redemske, et al., “Utilization of a Standardized Post-Occupancy Evaluation to Assess the Guiding Principles of a Major Academic Medical Center.”
• H. Cai and K. Spreckelmeyer, “The Continuous Learning Cycle: A Multi-phase Post-occupancy Evaluation (POE) of Decentralized Nursing Unit Design.”
• H. Cai, Z. Daneshvar, K. Miller, et al., “Exploring Campus Configuration and Patient Arrival Behaviors at Large Hospitals: An Integrated Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) Protocol.”
• L.M. Pereira and S.W. Ornstein, “A Systematic Literature Review on Healthcare Facility Evaluation Methods.”

About this column

The HERD Journal is a quarterly peer-reviewed publication created through a partnership between The Center for Health Design and Sage Publications. “Heard from HERD” uses studies published in the journal as a primer to explore different topics in evidence-based design and physical environment research. 

Debbie Gregory, R.N., DNP, FAAN, co-editor of HERD Journal and principal at Smith Seckman Reid Inc.