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The purpose of this paper is to review maintenance strategies within the healthcare domain and to discuss practical needs as gaps between research and practice.

The paper systematically categorizes the published literature on clinical maintenance optimization and then synthesizes it methodically.

This study highlights the significant issues relevant to the application of dependability analysis in healthcare maintenance, including the quantitative and qualitative criteria taken into account, data collection techniques and applied approaches to find the solution. Within each category, the gaps and further research needs have been discussed with respect to both an academic and industrial perspective.

It is worth mentioning that medical devices are becoming more and more numerous, various and complex. Although, they are often affected by environmental disturbances, sharp technological development, stochastic and uncertain nature of operations and degradation and the integrity and interoperability of the supportability system, the associated practices related to asset management and maintenance in healthcare are still lacking. Therefore, the literature review of applied based research on maintenance subject is necessary to reveal the holistic issues and interrelationships of what has been published as categorized specific topics.

The paper presents a comprehensive review that will be useful to understand the maintenance problem and solution space within the healthcare context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the research design, issues and considerations in the application of the Delphi technique to identify, refine and rate the critical success factors and performance measures in maintenance-associated infections.

In-depth literature review through the application of open and axial coding were applied to formulate the interview and research questions. These were used to conduct an exploratory case study of two healthcare maintenance managers, randomly selected from two National Health Service Foundation Trusts in England. The results of exploratory case study provided the rationale for the application of the Delphi technique in this research. The different processes in the application of the Delphi technique in healthcare research are examined thoroughly.

This research demonstrates the need to apply and integrate different research methods to enhance the validity of the Delphi technique. The rationale for the application of the Delphi technique in this research is because some healthcare maintenance managers lack knowledge about basic infection control (IC) principles to make hospitals safe for patient care. The result of first round of the Delphi exercise is a useful contribution in its own rights. It identified a number of salient issues and differences in the opinions of the Delphi participants, noticeably between healthcare maintenance managers and members of the infection control team. It also resulted in useful suggestions and comments to improve the quality and presentation of the second- and third-round Delphi instruments.

This research provides a research methodology that can be adopted by researchers investigating new and emerging issues in the healthcare sector. As this research demonstrates, the Delphi technique is relevant in soliciting expert knowledge and opinion to identify performance measures to control maintenance-associated infections in hospitals. The methodology provided here could be applied by other researchers elsewhere to probe, investigate and generate rich information about new and emerging healthcare research topics.

The authors demonstrate how different research methods can be integrated to enhance the validity of the Delphi technique. For example, the results of an exploratory case study provided the rationale for the application of the Delphi technique investigating the key performance measures in maintenance-associated infections. The different processes involved in the application of the Delphi technique are also carefully explored and discussed in depth.

The complexity and criticality of healthcare services highlight the importance of maintenance management function in healthcare facilities. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on maintenance management of healthcare facilities and hospital buildings to provide an organized literature review and identify gaps from the perspective of research and practice.

The paper categorizes the literature and adopts a review hierarchy according to maintenance management functions in hospital buildings. It explores the impact of those functions on the performance of maintenance activities in hospitals. Furthermore, it examines the role of information technology and automated decision support systems in facilitating hospital maintenance management functions and performance.

Literature on maintenance management in healthcare facilities and hospital buildings has so far been very limited. Recently published literature focusing on healthcare facilities management and its maintenance management functions is classified into various areas and sub-areas. The paper highlights gaps in the literature and suggests avenues for future research and improvements.

The paper contains a comprehensive listing of publications and their classifications according to various attributes. It will be useful for researchers, maintenance managers, practitioners and stakeholders concerned with facility management of hospital buildings.

Medical technologies and assets are one of the main drivers of increasing healthcare cost. The rising number and complexity of medical equipment have forced hospitals to set up and regulate medical equipment management programs to ensure critical devices are safe and reliable. The purpose of this paper is to gain insights into maintenance management-related activities for medical equipment. The paper proposes applying a tailored reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) approach for maintenance activities selection for medical equipment. Such approach will support assets management teams in enhancing operation, decrease risk and cost, and ultimately improve health of patients served by these equipment.

The traditional RCM approach will be used with a focus on criticality reduction. By criticality, the authors refer to the severity of failures and occurrence. The proposed method relies on the use of reliability growth analysis for opportunity identification followed by a thorough failure mode and effect analysis to investigate major failure modes and propose ways to reduce criticality. The effectiveness of the proposed method will be demonstrated using a case of one of the leading obstetric and gynecological hospitals in United Arab Emirates and in the Gulf Cooperation Council region.

The case examines the relationship between the current practice of planned preventive maintenance and the failure rates of the equipment during its life span. Although a rigorous preventive maintenance program is implemented in the hospital under study, some critical equipment show an increasing failure rates. The analysis highlights the inability of traditional time-driven preventive maintenance alone in preventing failures. Thus, a systematic RCM approach focused on criticality is more beneficial and more time and cost effective than traditional time-driven preventive maintenance practices.

The study highlights the need for utilizing RCM approach with criticality as the most important prioritization criterion in healthcare. A proper RCM implementation will decrease criticality and minimize the risk of failure, accidents and possible loss of life. In addition to that, it will increase the availability of equipment, and reduce cost and time.

This paper proposes a maintenance methodology that can help healthcare management to improve availability and decrease the risk of critical medical equipment failures. Current practices in healthcare facilities have difficulty identifying the optimal maintenance strategy. Literature focused on medical maintenance approach selection is rather limited, and this paper will help in this discussion. In addition to that, the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation supports the initiative of adopting RCM on a large scale in healthcare. Therefore, this paper address the gap in the literature for medical equipment maintenance and the work is in line with the recommendation of leading healthcare association. The paper also presents statistical review of the total number of received maintenance work orders during one full year in the hospital under study. The analysis supports the need for more research to examine current practice and propose more effective maintenance approaches.

Increasing demand for healthcare services world‐wide creates continuous requirements to reduce expenditures on “non‐core” activities, such as maintenance and operations. At the same time, owners, users, and clients of healthcare expect a high level of built‐facilities performance and minimized risks. The objective of this research is to develop an integrated facilities management (FM) model for healthcare facilities.

The paper presents a case study analysis of an Israeli acute care hospital, in which the integrated healthcare facilities management model (IHFMM) was implemented, and the findings were examined and evaluated three years later. The case studies investigated the effectiveness of the developed model in terms of maintenance and performance management. The robustness of the model was also examined by applying sensitivity analyses to its parameters.

Both of the case studies show significant results in predicting FM‐related aspects, such as the level of performance and the required maintenance budgets. The findings reveal a high correlation between the two phases of the case studies in terms of financial outcomes and performance predictions.

The core of the model is based on the strength of identified effects of certain parameters, such as maintenance expenditure and actual service life, on the performance and maintenance of healthcare facilities. The proposed IHFMM addresses two core topics of FM: maintenance and performance, for strategic FM decision making.

The purpose of this paper is to improve overall healthcare maintenance (HM) service performance in NHS infection control (IC). Hence, the authors identify critical success factors (CSFs) and key performance measures in maintenance-associated infections. These infections occur because of the poor performance of HM service in IC.

In the first Delphi exercise, complete CSFs and performance measures were presented to the Delphi participants for refinement and modification. Delphi round 1 data were analysed manually and used to refine the rounds 2 and 3 Delphi instruments. In subsequent Delphi rounds, the results were analysed through descriptive statistics.

In total, eight CSFs and 53 key performance measures were identified for reducing maintenance-associated infections in hospitals. For example, establishing clear communication between the infection control team (ICT) and HM unit is important for preventing maintenance-associated HAIs. Dust prevention is also identified by the healthcare experts as an important measure to prevent maintenance-associated HAIs in high-risk patient areas.

The findings provide CSFs and key performance measures for measuring performance in HM in IC. Reducing the rate of maintenance-associated infections will have important socio-economic and health ramifications for hospitals. It will reduce cost and free up additional resources for alternative projects. It will also raise confidence among healthcare users about the quality of services provided by hospitals.

The increasing competitiveness in the business sector forces facilities managers in reducing expenditure on “non‐core” activities. Consequently, the integration of different domains related to facilities management (FM) motivates the development of a quantitative model, which may contribute both to the planning of FM activities and to the improved effectiveness of FM units. Three methodologies were used in the research presented in this paper: a structured FM survey conducted among acute care facilities in Israel; a statistical analysis of the data; and the conceptual development of an FM model. The proposed model is divided into three main phases that deal with the following five main FM domains. The outcomes of the model produce a set of variables, which can be analysed according to a given facility. In addition, the model provides guidelines for the methodological design and management of healthcare facilities from a life‐cycle perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the main elements of building performance, namely, building function, building impact and building quality in order to promote strategic facilities management in healthcare organisation to improve core (health) business activities.

Based on current available toolkits, a questionnaire is issued to healthcare users (staff) in a public hospital about their level of agreement in relation to these elements. Statistical analysis is conducted to regroup the elements. These regrouped elements and their inter-relationships are used to develop a framework for measuring building performance in healthcare buildings.

The analysis helped to clarify the understanding and agreement of users in Australian healthcare organisation with regards to building performance. Based on the survey results, 11 new elements were regrouped into three groups. These new regrouped elements will be used to develop a reliable framework for measuring performance of Australian healthcare buildings.

Currently there is no building performance toolkit available for Australian healthcare organisation. The framework developed in this paper will help healthcare organisations with a reliable performance tool for their buildings and this will promote strategic facilities management

This paper aims to investigate how digital capabilities associated with building information modelling (BIM) can integrate a wide range of information to improve built asset management (BAM) decision-making during the in-use phase of hospital buildings.

A comprehensive document analysis and a participatory case study was undertaken with a regional NHS hospital to review the type of information that can be used to better inform BAM decision-making to develop a conceptual framework to improve information use during the health-care BAM process, test how the conceptual framework can be applied within a BAM division of a health-care organisation and develop a cloud-based BIM application.

BIM has the potential to facilitate better informed BAM decision-making by integrating a wide range of information related to the physical condition of built assets, resources available for BAM and the built asset’s contribution to health-care provision within an organisation. However, interdepartmental information sharing requires a significant level of time and cost investment and changes to information gathering and storing practices within the whole organisation.

This research demonstrated that the implementation of BIM during the in-use phase of hospital buildings is different to that in the design and construction phases. At the in-use phase, BIM needs to integrate and communicate information within and between the estates, facilities division and other departments of the organisation. This poses a significant change management task for the organisation’s information management systems. Thus, a strategically driven top-down organisational approach is needed to implement BIM for the in-use phase of hospital buildings.

This paper aims to review the healthcare supply chain (HSC) literature along various areas and to find out the gap in it.

In total, 143 research papers were reviewed during 1996-2017. A critical review was carried out in various dimensions such as research methodologies/data collection method (empirical, case study and literature review) and inquiry mode of research methodology (qualitative, quantitative and mixed), country-specific, targeted area, research aim and year of publication.

Supply chain (SC) operations, performance measurement, inventory management, lean and agile operation, and use of information technology were well studied and analyzed, however, employee and customer training, tracking and visibility of medicines, cold chain management, human resource practices, risk management and waste management are felt to be important areas but not much attention were made in this direction.

Mainly drug and vaccine SC were considered in current study of HSC while SC along healthcare equipment and machine, hospitality and drug manufacturing related papers were excluded in this study.

This literature review has recognized and analyzed various issues relevant to HSC and shows the direction for future research to develop an efficient and effective HSC.

The insight of various aspects of HSC was explored in general for better and deeper understanding of it for designing of an efficient and competent HSC. The outcomes of the study may form a basis to decide direction of future research.