How is BIM used in the healthcare sector?
Richard Huntley | July 18, 2025
Any highly specialised sector, like healthcare, will have highly specific construction requirements. MEP coordination, for example, must take into account a need for medical gas supplies, back up power systems and healthcare-specific HVAC systems.
Extensive, sector-specific experience is needed for effective and efficient design, allowing the building to fulfil and even exceed its mandate, while providing value for money.
Key requirements for healthcare building projects
Healthcare buildings, like hospitals, rehabilitation centres, acute care facilities, GP surgeries and more, need to fulfil a lot of functions:
- Provide a therapeutic environment for patients, to support and aid recovery.
- Allow efficient working practices for staff.
- House all relevant equipment.
- Be highly resilient in an emergency situation.
To deliver this, the main requirements for healthcare buildings are:
- Compliance with stringent regulatory protocols
- Planning and design for infection control
- Workflow and traffic optimisation for different building users (patients, their families and staff)
In addition, other important requirements for construction in the health sector include:
- Collaboration: seamless coordination between construction sub-contractors and relevant experts in health and health estate management
- Value for money: during construction and through the building’s lifecycle
- Building maintenance: supporting the entire lifecycle of the building, including day to day operations, future refurbishment and potential expansion.
Benefits of using BIM for healthcare projects
We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.
– Winston Churchill, quoted in NHS Health Building Notes.
A BIM (Building Information Model) is a digital model that gathers all the information needed for the design and construction of a specific site. It can also include information relevant to the later stages of a building’s lifecycle, including as-built plans, maintenance information and even its decommission. It also acts as a single source of information for all stakeholders, gathering input from healthcare professionals, architects, construction firms and specialist sub-contractors.
By bringing all that expertise and input together in the early stages of the project, BIM allows us to shape the building to fulfil its intended purposes as efficiently as possible. It recognises that using all available expertise to ‘design-in’ and co-ordinate critical features is both practical and cost-effective, as this will shape how staff are supported and patients are cared for once the building is up and running.
Regulatory compliance
Any healthcare building must not only meet standard Health and Safety regulations for public buildings, it must also comply with specific healthcare regulations. In the UK, these are documented in Health Technical Memoranda and Health Building Notes. They give guidance on things like medical gas pipeline systems and infection control in the built environment.
From NHS England estates technical guidance
Industry standard BIM tools, like Revit, have pre-designed sets and templates that are designed to comply with relevant regulations. Revit can also be configured to automatically check the model against regulatory requirements. Examples include observing specified clearances around equipment or clean/dirty workflows in sterile areas.
BIM also stores metadata on each design component, down to each light fitting or power socket. If HTM (Health Technical Memorandum) requires a minimum distance between beds or a specific type of ventilation for infection control, the model can document the spaces and any relevant product specifications.
By including details on who designed it, which standards it is compliant with and when it was last updated, BIM creates a detailed audit trail for regulatory approval.
These features of BIM make it much easier to adhere to regulatory requirements, reducing the costs and delays of going through several iterations to get sign off and approval.
Infection control
A large part of the regulations for healthcare buildings concern Infection Prevention and Control (IPC). Health Building Note 00-09 states it is important for “all stakeholders [of a construction project] to understand the basic principles of ‘designed-in’ IPC.”
One obvious requirement for a building like a hospital is correct airflow and pressurisation for infection control zones, controlled by a specialised HVAC system.
Another is sufficient hot and cold running water in areas where staff are required to wash their hands, and control of taps by levers or sensors to avoid contamination of hands after washing.
BIM supports highly accurate MEP co-ordination for integrating HVAC, plumbing and other MEP systems like power and medical gas supply. Using BIM in healthcare allows early clash detection, so designs can be tested more thoroughly before any work happens on-site. For example, MultiCAD provided MEP co-ordination for the refurbishment of the Acute Medicine Unit at Barnett Hospital.
Highly accurate MEP co-ordination avoids costly delays or rework after construction has begun, saving time and budget.
Workflow and traffic optimisation
As mentioned in the above paragraph, BIM is used to streamline the process of integrating complex MEP systems, which also impacts on space and workflow planning.
An efficient and effective building supports medical staff by ensuring an appropriate travel distance between critical workstations and is designed to manage the flow of traffic around the building.
The site must also be designed to support infection control practices, with sufficient numbers of single bed rooms, for example. In addition, there must be comfort and privacy for patients, suitable spaces for families and visitors, and good accessibility.
In healthcare, BIM allows stakeholders to simulate traffic flow of staff, patients and visitors in different areas of the building. Experienced technicians can use it to create a 3D walk-through, to test a design and invite input from clinical staff.
Value for money
The power of BIM in healthcare comes from its many layers of information. The most familiar layer, 3D, is the geometric model of the site and makes early clash detection and workflow optimisation easy to do, as described above. It also allows compliance information to be attached to the digital, 3D model for a robust audit trail. A good example is our work on fabrication drawings and visualisation of pipework at St George’s University Hospitals ITU.
MultiCAD’s 3D model of the pipework for St George’s University Hospitals ITU
The next layer of BIM, 4D, includes time as a parameter. This allows more accurate scheduling of projects by adding timelines for the construction of each element, so the critical path and project dependencies can be projected in more detail. This allows more efficient use of resources on site and therefore cost savings.
5D BIM includes cost data in the project model. This allows the latest data on costs to be added to each element of the plan, giving real-time cost information. This makes project budgets more accurate, supports quicker cost analysis and gives better financial oversight.
When BIM is used to its fullest extent it can not only help avoid costly mistakes, but can also give greater clarity on the costs of construction and the rest of the building’s life cycle.
Collaboration between stakeholders
With so much technical information to consider, it is critical that the needed healthcare representatives are able to easily contribute to the project design. A digital BIM makes it easy for all stakeholders to share their input at all stages of the project, especially in the earlier stages.
Visualisations can be created from the 3D model long before any work starts on site, allowing clinical staff to participate in a 3D walk-through to give feedback and spot potential problems. BIM is also used for scenario testing, where the location of MEP (or other) elements can be changed in the visualisation and tested with simulated workflow or usage data, to find an optimal layout.
MultiCAD’s 3D model showing the layout of all MEP elements on site at APS Mechanical.
This could allow medical technicians to evaluate how the positioning of MRI scanners, for example, can affect workflow around the room. Or to model the operation of an emergency ventilation system, and how it impacts building users or infection control protocol.
Longer-term building management
The value of BIM to the project doesn’t end once construction is finished and the building is commissioned. It is a powerful tool for supporting maintenance, emergency planning, refurbishment, expansion and energy management.
To assist with meeting sustainability goals, a BIM holds a lot of information about the systems that consume large amounts of power like the HVAC systems and large or critical medical equipment. With smart design incorporating sensors to determine building occupancy, ambient temperature and air quality, the BIM can be used to monitor and even improve operating energy efficiency.
A BIM for healthcare acts as a basis for a digital twin of the site or complex, which can be updated with the as-built plan after construction is complete, and can be populated with maintenance requirements for the different MEP systems and other relevant elements. It can be used and updated by the facilities management teams for warranty information, maintenance planning, and forecasting of costs. It can also be used for simulations and training for the purposes of emergency planning, for example fire detection, prevention and evacuation planning, without needing to close or empty large sections of the building.
Finally, a digital twin model can be updated with either new regulatory requirements, updated building usage or planned refurbishments, to ensure the building remains compliant and avoids incurring fines for non-compliance.
As the name suggests, a digital twin is a perfect digital replica. For effective building management, a digital twin is an essential asset.
Our work at the NHS Rehabilitation Centre, Nottingham
For an example of a recent project that showcases our BIM and MEP services, see our case study on the NHS Rehabilitation Centre, the design of which won the ‘Net Zero Award’ from Constructing Excellence Midlands.
Expert BIM for the health sector
Contact MultiCAD to discuss your next project with our experienced CAD/BIM technicians.