Organizing the Evidence for Healthcare Design Projects

This methodology column provides project leaders with helpful tools to organize the evidence analysis for healthcare design projects.

Searching the evidence to support a design change is encouraged both to guide the development of a project and to determine whether the project is performance improvement, evidence-based design change, or novel research.

A project charter, evidence summary grid, stem and leaf plot, and decision algorithm are presented as tools to guide evidence analysis at the start of a healthcare design project.

Properly searching the evidence and analyzing results sets the stage for project development and may lead to the dissemination or generation of knowledge from which to set design standards.