Investigating Delivery, Procurement and Contracting Relationships in Healthcare Facility Construction

In the United States, there is currently significant growth in the construction of healthcare facilities. This healthcare construction boom is driven by multiple factors including population shifts within the U.S.; aging facilities which no longer meet modern operational practices and efficiencies; and significant shifts in building code requirements. The last major healthcare construction boom occurred in the U.S. when design-bid-build delivery systems were the norm. The implications of healthcare facility capital being used inefficiently have resulted in some healthcare facilities, which are needed, being financially unobtainable. The following items are discussed (1) current results from an ongoing study focused on the optimization of the healthcare facility acquisition process; (2)briefly existing construction industry studies upon which potential optimization are based; (3) the results achieved to date; and (4) present the future research tasks. The paper also identifies primary challenges relative to the healthcare construction benchmarking of delivery, procurement and contracting methods to allow further effective research. To date, a framework for data collection has been identified, and during a preliminary study, several potential relationships to broader construction industry studies have been defined, such as delivery and construction time. The effort to date has identified the fundamental data elements which must be defined in healthcare projects to effectively compare this specific project type to existing construction industry studies, and to further investigate the relationships between delivery, procurement, and contracting to achieve a more optimal process.