Many healthcare facilities today, like hospitals, no longer keep up with the latest medical advancements. Usually, older hospitals find it challenging to adapt to modern technological changes in the medical field due to the incompatibility of their structure. But aside from that, many factors affect their decision concerning hospital construction.
Many hospitals work on hospital expansion plans to cater to more patients and improve their health services. However, working on an expansion plan is not a walk in the park because it involves many aspects of the hospital’s management and operations. The planning alone could take years because of the many critical details project planners need to ensure, test, and double-check.
Aside from the planning, many things could cause delays in hospital construction plans. In this post, let’s understand what some of those are.
1 – Lack of support from its management and shareholders.
One of the causes of delays in hospital construction plans is support insufficiency from its management and shareholders. In every hospital, some people are in charge of approving the plans and changes in the premises. And when not all people agree on the expansion plan, it would be challenging for the management to push through with the project.
To move forward with an expansion plan, they need the support of other people. The hospital’s management and shareholders should all agree and give their 100% support for the project to ensure they’ll address all hospital issues. On top of that, they need the approval of their shareholders for the disbursement of the budget and other things the construction project may have.
2 – No approval from government offices.
Another cause of hospital construction plan delay is approval from government permits. There are many cases when hospital management would send their application and request a government permit but wouldn’t hear back from them.
Unfortunately, approval of government permits could take a long time. Some may receive a decline in their application, while some would have to wait for months or even a year, depending on the complexity of the request, criteria, and other matters concerning the permit.
3 – The incompatibility of the project schedule with the hospital operations.
Hospitals are one of the busiest institutions in society. Hundreds to thousands of people visit the hospital daily for care and assistance. Because of that, it’s challenging to set a schedule to limit its operations and relocate its departments, offices, and patients.
Many critical operations, meetings, and services unexpectedly happen in the hospital. That’s why setting a fixed time for its construction project could encounter a couple of delays.
4 – Project complexity.
One of the reasons older hospitals can no longer undergo a construction project is because of its complexity. Tearing down an entire hospital is costly and halts people’s careers, patient treatments, and profit flow. Because of this, a hospital can’t just move forward with a project.
Since tearing down and renovating the entire hospital property can be unideal, management opts for renovations instead. However, since renovating an old property comes with challenges and issues, the architects, engineers, and parties that the project management works with need to reevaluate and find better design options suitable for the property.
5 – Project funding issues.
This fifth reason closely links to the first reason I shared. Even though hospitals may seem to have a lot of money, that’s not the case every time. Hospitals have a lot of operation costs, and they also usually partner with other businesses for budget support.
Since there are many financial aspects that a hospital deals with, project funding issues are inevitable. When a funding issue occurs, the hospital has no choice but to halt its progress. If they can’t sustain their agreement with a construction or project company, the project will immediately stop.
6 – Having unforeseen issues due to inadequate planning.
Last but not least is having unforeseen issues due to inadequate planning. If the hospital construction plan fails to recognise and assess minor issues that could happen once the project begins, a problem could occur. When there’s a problem, delays happen because the project can’t move forward unless they oversee and have the best solution.
Even the best plans could have unforeseen issues due to external, contractor, and management decisions. Many can move forward despite having unforeseen issues because they work with professionals to find the best solution that would no longer halt their project in the future.
Delays could happen, but what you do to resolve them is the key to a successful project.
Any hospital could encounter delays with its construction plan. But most don’t last for days or weeks because they immediately make ways to resolve them. The key to moving forward with the project despite having delays is to settle them and work with experts to ensure no similar situation could happen again for the better.
About the author:
Bianca Banda is a writer for Flex by MTX, a privately owned construction and engineering company that relentlessly champions the use of Modern Methods of Construction for social, economic, and environmental good.
