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This paper aims to present a review of the current COVID-19 pandemic with particular emphasis on developing countries in Africa. It aims to demonstrate how facilities management (FM) services delivery in public hospitals can be improved for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper embraces a review of current literature on COVID-19 and FM together with credible media updates. The paper critically synthesizes knowledge on the pandemic to position a technical view on how FM can be improved in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges and realities to the health-care system of most African countries. Despite the significant efforts being made by various governments, there appears to be a lack of a coherent and strategic FM plan to fight the pandemic. To create the necessary antivirus built environment, actionable and timely FM interventions are needed.

The report herein is case guarded, based on the prevailing data and information as at the time of writing the paper. Nevertheless, the recommendations from the paper are useful for a worse future trajectory of the pandemic.

Knowledge of the proposed interventions will inform and assist health-care facilities managers in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The paper presents the first step towards encapsulating knowledge on FM and the COVID-19 pandemic. It sets forth recommendations that are useful for most developing countries’ public hospitals’ FM practices in the fight against this global pandemic. The authors intend to follow-up with future empirical studies for more objective assessments of FM and the COVID-19 pandemic.

With challenges in health-care facilities management (FM) and adequacy of health-care resources constraints in most developing countries, improving patient’s health-care experience has become of strategic importance in public health-care delivery. This paper aims to investigate the mediating effect of adequacy of health-care resources on the relationship between the quality of health-care FM services and patient’s health-care experience.

This cross-sectional study adopts a quantitative approach based on a questionnaire survey conducted on 660 patients of three teaching hospitals in Ghana. In total, 622 valid questionnaires were used for data analysis using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The mediating effect of adequacy of health-care resources on the relationship between responsiveness and tangibility and patients’ health-care experience were supported, while that of empathy, reliability and assurance were not supported. The relationship between and adequacy of health-care resources and patients’ health-care experience was also supported.

The study limitation is that it was only the teaching hospitals that were surveyed. In future studies, a comparative analysis can be conducted between both public and private hospitals. Other constructs and relationships such as the mediating effect of the quality of health-care administrative process on the relationship between FM service quality and patients’ health-care experience as well as the moderation effect of adequacy of health-care resource on the relationship between FM service quality and patients’ health-care experience can also be tested. Future studies on the same subject can use health-care workers as the respondents of the study.

The result should inspire health-care managers to prioritize attention on health-care FM to create and sustain a decent health-care environment. Facilities managers should ensure standards are not compromised by keeping health-care resources in good condition through the organisation and management of resources.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the pioneer studies to test the mediating effect of adequacy of health-care resources on the relationship between patient’s health-care experience and health-care FM service quality. The proposed framework can be adapted to various sectors and countries as this empirical validation extends knowledge.

With rising health-care costs and the financial constraints in most developing countries, prioritization of needs have become an issue of strategic importance in public hospitals. As a result, there is the intense competition of scare resources between core health care and non-core facilities management (FM) services. Given that financial resources are needed to facilitate the smooth operation of the FM department, this paper aims to investigate the direct and indirect effects of finance on the relationship between service quality and performance of hospital FM services.

The paper adopts a quantitative approach following a general questionnaire survey which was conducted on the research population. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to investigate the relationships between service quality and performance of hospital FM services.

The study highlights the relevance of service quality to improving FM performance and demonstrate the direct and indirect influence of finance to ensure quality FM services delivery to improve core health care outcomes in hospitals.

The result of this study should motivate hospital management to prioritize attention on FM in scare resources management in public hospitals to create and maintain a decent health-care environment for better health outcomes. Further, managerial commitment to facilitate employee training, empowerment, incentives, awards and compensation should be strengthened in the quest of ensuring quality services delivery.

The paper extends knowledge by mediating the influence of finance on the relationship between service quality and FM performance. Proposes a parsimonious financial mediation framework which can easily be adaptable to several developing countries health-care FM management.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the status of the physical assets of Norwegian hospital facilities in terms of technical condition, building performance, usability and adaptability, thereby comprehending the main challenges for property management as part of facilities management (FM) within hospitals of the Norwegian Specialist Health-Care Services and permitting a discussion on a more strategic property management role.

The research is based on an action research approach using data collection from surveys, schemes and questionnaires, literature studies, documentation analysis and workshops with an active research team involvement with stakeholders. In-depth interviews were undertaken with owner representatives, property management representatives and health-care deliverers, and a GAP analysis allowed a study of the quality of property management (as part of the FM).

A severe technical backlog was documented together with a strong demand for structural upgrading, which was roughly estimated to be approximately 30-35 billion NOK in 2012 (3.75-4.4 billion euros). Improvements are necessary in all areas of FM delivery within limited economic frameworks, even though several examples of good property management (as part of FM delivery) were found. A gap exists between the general strategy concerning hospital assets and the property management role, particularly with regard to the translation of change in user needs into changed facilities. A need for an increasing professionalization of the role is pressing, turning attention from operational costs and control to potential added value. This requires a shift of focus from the property manager in order to implement visions and goals for the health-care sector, which involves several actions such as an improved communication between stakeholders and technically improved skills, thus ensuring the recruitment and capability of property management staff and improved measurement processes.

This paper give two major recommendations: first, a stronger integration of the property management role as part of the FM delivery with the executive management of the Health Authorities and Regional and Local Health Trusts; and second, a nationally coordinated strategy for the development of property management in the Specialist Health-Care Services (called Strategic FM). The authors believe that developing a pool of competencies at the national level is necessary to develop the tools, methods and standardized measurements to enable a change in the use of the terms of added value and sustainability. Ultimately, this will enhance the assets of the health sector, and this paper suggests a model that allows for this development.

This paper shows a model for property management as a strategic role in a holistic process involving all stakeholders from both the bottom up and the top down. The authors believe this process will engage the stakeholders in agreeing upon a clear vision and set of goals for the health-care service assets.

Patient-centred strategies should be applied in health-care facilities management (HcFM) to guarantee service quality to meet patients’ needs and ensure quality patient health-care experience. This paper aims to examine the intervening influence of the quality of health-care administrative process (QAP) on the association between health-care facilities service quality and patients’ experiences with medical care.

A quantitative technique was used for this cross-sectional study in three Ghanaian teaching hospitals. A total of 622 relevant questionnaires were used for the analysis of the study using SEM-PLS.

The intervening influence of the QAP on the relationship between HcFM service quality (empathy and tangibility) and patients’ health-care experience (PHcE) were reinforced whilst that of reliability, responsiveness and assurance were not reinforced. The association between the QAP and PHcE was also established.

A high-quality health-care workforce (both core and supporting) and quality work environment provided by the FM department and QAP are essential during quality-of-care delivery, to reduce threats to patient safety to achieve exceptional PHcE. The constraint on the study is that information was gathered from only Ghana. Hence, the generalisation of the findings will be a challenge. Thus, in future, it is proposed that a comparative study across a developed country and a developing country can be conducted. Future research can assess the influence of the health-care internal appearance on patients’ satisfaction.

Practically, the administrative system can be improved by reducing patients overall waiting time. Steps must also be taken to reduce the problem of needless administrative tasks and practices to simplify administrative practices and improve patients’ total health-care experience (core health-care delivery and HcFM), as this influence patients’ total health-care experience.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this empirical validation is one of the initial studies in service quality and FM to examine how health-care administrative process quality affects the relationship between FM service quality and patients’ experiences with medical care. This framework can be adapted for research in different countries to extend knowledge.

This paper aims to explore current sustainable facilities management knowledge and practice, focussing specifically on sustainable waste management implementation in health-care facilities with an aim to conceptualize a framework for assessing performance and impact of successful implementation of safe and sustainable health-care waste management on health-care provision.

This paper used a review of existing literature in relation to health-care waste management in the context of sustainable facilities management and facilities management performance and forms a basis for further research.

The growing significance of the strategic role of facilities management is established. Building on this recognition, a conceptual framework for assessing both implementation of sustainable facilities management practice in the context of waste management in health-care facilities and its impact on health-care provision is proposed.

This paper conceptualizes a framework for optimizing safe and sustainable waste management implementation in health-care facilities and assessing its impact on the bottom-line of health-care provision.

Given the premise of de facto universal standards for FM, this paper aims to investigate development of facilities management (FM) at an Albanian and a Norwegian university hospital through examination of two hypotheses: the university hospital has recognised FM and established a designated FM organisation (H1) and the university hospital provides adequate food and catering services at ward kitchens and buffets (H2).

This is an exploratory and descriptive comparative case study based on a diverse cases’ designs.

There is limited and strong support for H1 at the Albanian and Norwegian university hospitals, respectively. Both the Albanian and the Norwegian university hospitals rely on in-house production of facilities services, but the Albanian university hospital has outsourced food and catering services. FM and provision of facilities services are deeply integrated within the Norwegian university hospital’s core activities. There is also limited and strong support for H2 at the Albanian and Norwegian university hospitals, respectively. Hence, the Albanian Ministry of Health and the Albanian university hospital’s top management have a comprehensive, but not impossible, task, if the aim is to catch up with the Norwegian university hospital concerning FM.

This is an exploratory and descriptive comparative case study. Large N studies should be carried out both in Albania and Norway and preferably also in other countries to corroborate and develop the findings.

This is the first comparative study of FM at an Albanian and a Norwegian university hospital.

This paper aims to gain insight in how the involvement of facilities management (FM) and clinical employees are practiced in new Norwegian hospital projects and to study the benefits and lessons learned from the involvement.

This study is conducted by cross-sectional case studies of eight hospital projects by using a literature review, interviews and document studies of FM and clinical employees and project leaders (PLs) among Sykehusbygg.

The service design approach with a structured interaction between the PL’s of Sykehusbygg, and the different disciplines of clinical employees and FM specialist was rewarding and efficient. The facilitator role of Sykehusbygg is essential to manage such a broad and complex involvement process using a wide range of various techniques at the different stages of the projects (dialogue meetings, review meetings, workshops, post-it notes, 2-D drawings, mock-up and 3-D models, as well as virtual reality (VR) and Building Information Modeling technology). The clinical employees’ framework is stronger and much more structured than the involvement of FM competences through the different stages of the projects. The property management competences were involved at the early concept phase and design phase, whereas the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) competences were getting involved through the construction and commissioning phase. The value of FM involvement in all stages of the project is seen beneficial, particularly when the FM specialist become a part of the design team and located physically at the same place. The main reported benefits of early FM involvement are cost-effective technical solutions and installations, less design flaws and improved functionality, as well as a stronger ownership and mutual respect between the clinical and FM disciplines. However, not all hospital organizations see the benefits of the FM involvement of all stages, as they are driven by reducing capital cost. In one of the new projects, other ways of involving the FM competences were tested. Additionally, particularly for the O&M competences, a dialogue meeting with a clear focus of sharing experiences with different technical solution was found rewarding in terms of cost benefits.

This study does not consider the social impact of the choices made in the design phase. The findings also indicated a certain development of the FM involvement. This is not studied in two of the newest projects where they are still in the design phase and the FM role was not interviewed.

The PL role is important as a facilitator role of the involvement process.

A dialogue meeting with a group of O&M people was found rewarding and valuable for knowledge sharing. This methodology can be further developed and tested, as this group of stakeholders is not always available for giving input in the project.

The value of this study is the description of the interaction between the PLs and the hospital organization in the eight projects and lessons learned by the involvement of FM competences and clinical employees.

This paper aims to review FM research in Switzerland with a focus on recent research projects at the Institute of Facility Management of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

The paper provides a summary and review of research projects.

FM research in Switzerland has grown in the past few years and is now well rooted in the Swiss FM industry. The focus is on service management, workplace management and FM in health care. FM research in Switzerland has been driven collaboratively by the Institute of FM and the industry.

Research at the IFM is very much oriented towards application and many collaborative projects between industry, public administration and universities have been conducted. However, some fields of FM have received little attention yet.

FM research in Switzerland has been driven collaboratively by the Institute of FM and the industry. The focus is on application, e.g. management tools, benchmarking systems or the relationship of FM services, organisational outcomes, and customer satisfaction. Many research results contribute to the development of Swiss FM industry.

In this article the authors summarize FM research in Switzerland and their research approach. With this they contribute to transparency and further development of FM research.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) help to monitor performance, thereby revealing the gap between planned and executed results relative to organizational objectives. The purpose of this paper is to develop KPIs for performance measurement of facilities management (FM) services in public hospitals.

Following a comprehensive literature review of KPIs in FM, a set of KPIs were first selected. This was then subjected to content validation by experts. Thereafter a questionnaire survey was conducted to identify participants perception on the level of importance of the proposed KPIs. The main analytical tool used was SPSS factor analysis/principal component extraction.

Adapting an expanded balanced scorecard typology, the paper identifies 17 KPIs, which are useful for performance improvement of FM. The study also introduces new financial dimensions beyond the traditional cost and profit-centered metrics.

The study was limited to three FM services. Although the results of the Kruskal–Wallis test shows no significant difference in the level of importance on more than 80% of the indicators, larger sample is required in future studies to examine indicator preference for the respective services. An empirical study to test the proposed indicators to measure FM performance could also be a next step.

The paper presents the first step to develop performance indicators, which are of relevance to FM performance measurement and could be utilized to improve performance. The indicators are largely generic and can easily be adapted by other FM service sectors for performance measurement.