A study of managing healthcare projects in Hong Kong

Cost and time overruns have always been considered as a common feature of running healthcare projects. Hospital projects, because of their unique characteristics, are more complicated and difficult to manage. To improve the adverse situation, various innovative measures, such as value management, partnering concepts, and design-and-build procurement method, have been introduced in recent healthcare projects in Hong Kong. The effectiveness of these innovative measures could be evidenced by the outstanding performance of some recently completed projects. Based on twenty in-depth interviews with industry practitioners, preliminary conclusions on the major problems, success criteria and critical success factors in running healthcare projects in Hong Kong were derived. The integration and coordination of building services, changes from the multi-head client and various end-users, and up-to-date technology are the major problems that the project participants need to face in running healthcare projects. Time, cost and quality are still the iron triangle of the success of a project, however, to achieve the functionality is also found to be an important criterion for healthcare projects. In order to achieve better project success, the effect of human-related factors, such as the performance of client, consultant and contractor, is also essential. It is envisaged that a comprehensive questionnaire survey on the potential problems, success criteria and critical success factors will be launched in Hong Kong for more in-depth exploration.