Survey of Design Research in Healthcare Settings; The Use and Impact of Evidence-based Design

Recent history has shown an unprecedented healthcare building boom with $194.5 billion in current dollars spent on healthcare construction from 2004 through 2008 alone. (Jones, 2009) According to the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the recent economic downturn has only modestly slowed construction in healthcare relative to other industries and forecasts indicate that the healthcare industry may be one of the first to recover. (Baker, 2009) AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA also projects that the healthcare industry will decline less than five percent in the two-year period of 2009-10 (-3.6 percent in 2009 and -0.9 percent in 2010), while the commercial sectors of office, retail and hotels may experience a decline of 25-35 percent in the same period. According to an analysis conducted by RSMeans Business Solutions, even with the current economic downturn, a total of $40.7 billion in hospitals and clinics was under construction at the start of the fourth quarter of 2008. This was nearly identical to the $41 billion of activity the same time period one year earlier. (Carpenter, 2009)