A Systematic Literature Review on Healthcare Facility Evaluation Methods

Abstract

To present a systematic literature review on predesign evaluation (PDE), postoccupancy evaluation (POE), and evidence-based design (EBD); to delimit the concepts and relationships of these terms and place them in the building life cycle framework to guide their application and indicate a common understanding and possible gaps. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses protocol was used. Inclusion criteria cover texts that present a concept, method, procedure, or tool and use the example in healthcare services or other environments. The reports were excluded if there was no evidence of a relationship between the terms, if cited rhetorically, duplicated, or if an instrument was not related to at least one other term. The identification used Scopus and Web of Science and considered reports until December 2021 (search period). When extracting the evidence, formal quality criteria were observed and sentences and other elements were collected as evidence and tabulated to segment topics of interest. The searches identified 799 reports with 494 duplicates. In the selection, 53 records were selected from 305 obtained in 14 searches. The classification extracted concepts, relationships, and frameworks. Results indicate a consistent understanding of POE and EBD and a diffuse understanding of PDE. A summary of the three concepts including two frameworks is proposed. Situations are contextualized where these frameworks are used in specific areas of research. One of these frameworks provides a basis for classifying building assessment methods, procedures, and tools but does not detail the classification criteria. Thus, more detailed adjustments should be considered in specific studies.