Development of metrics and an external benchmarking program for healthcare facilities

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a benchmarking program for healthcare projects. Healthcare construction projects tend to be unique due to varied healthcare facilities and offered services, thus requiring a platform to study distinct project management approaches for the healthcare industry. The idea of continuous improvement through competitive benchmarking is already well established. However, highly targeted comparisons are not possible without industry-specific metrics. The ability to measure project performance allows for credible industry norms and continuous improvement. As a first step, a comprehensive study focused on identifying specific metrics to measure healthcare capital project-performance in key areas such as cost, schedule, change, and best practice implementation was concluded with input from a team comprised of healthcare owners, contractors, and architects. In addition, space/dimensional and program-specific metrics were also identified for this external benchmarking program. This paper presents the development of a framework for different healthcare capital facility-types using absolute and relative metrics for the healthcare industry. The findings include resources for the healthcare community in the form of healthcare facility metrics and project database that enables the process of quantifying the effectiveness and efficiency of processes specific to the healthcare industry of completed and ongoing projects.

Keywords:

• Healthcare facilities
• owner
• external benchmarking
• metrics
• planning

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank and acknowledge the contribution of all that participates in the development of the Healthcare Facility Benchmarking Program (HFBP), including Kaiser Permanente; the U.S. Department of Defense; the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Barton Marlow Company; and Mortenson Construction. The continuous participation of HCA, Adventist Health, Mercy, HKS Inc., Sutter Health, John Muir Health, McCarthy, and Cannon Design was also essential for the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.