Staff and expert advisors working on the project to create the exciting new University Hospital Monklands are among the finalists for a prestigious digital innovation award.
The shortlisting for Digital Collaboration of the Year in the Digital Construction Awards reflects fantastic transformational work between our colleagues in the Monklands Replacement Project (MRP), their lead advisors Currie & Brown and key partners WSP and architects Keppie Design.
Development of the technology to support hospital design was spearheaded by professional services firm WSP. They tailored existing tech to produce a digital process to replace a cumbersome paper-based system for reviewing departmental and room plans for the new Monklands, to be constructed at Wester Moffat in Airdrie.
MRP clinical lead for nursing Fiona Cowan, who heads the departmental review process, said: “We tasked WSP with creating an electronic system that could be accessed by our stakeholders, from project partners to clinical and non-clinical staff, who are giving us crucial input on the developing designs.
“It had to be fully digital whilst still being inclusive for non-digital users, including those colleagues who don’t have access to personal computers or digital devices.
“In previous projects, NHS Lanarkshire has conducted paper-based stakeholder reviews, which are open to risk as people could print and mark up different revisions of a drawing, handwriting can lead to errors in understanding and there’s no audit trail of who made which comment and when.
“WSP’s Digital Services team did a brilliant job of helping us move away from the paper-based system by adapting our existing data-sharing technology, Building Information Modelling (BIM) 360. It has structured document management, the ability to explore 3D design, and tracking of information received and sent, changes suggested, and approvals.
“Along with its strong audit capabilities, the tool can also generate paper copies of drawings for non-digital stakeholders. After that, we have a hybrid meeting with digital and non-digital participants where our architects log comments. This facilitates the recording and tracking of commentary in the digital system.
“Follow-up meetings allow digital and non-digital stakeholders to confirm acceptance of the designs, aligning with our governance arrangements. Turnaround times for reviews have been faster and the electronic system and minimisation of paper use reflects the MRP’s ambitions to create Scotland’s first hospital that is fully digital and net zero carbon.”
The Digital Construction Awards, which take place on 2 July in London, celebrate the most pioneering projects, teams and individuals championing innovation and technology in the built environment.
