Exploring the Condition of Wards in Malaysia Hospital Buildings

Hospital buildings condition necessitated the findings of this study especially the state of the wards in the hospital buildings. The objective of this study is to examine the conditions of the wards in the hospital buildings, and proffer recommendations to various stakeholders for enhancement. A quantitative approach was used where the condition of the hospital wards was ranked respectively by the participants were physicians, psychologists, dentists, veterinarians, medical doctors, medical officers, nurses, and other hospital buildings professional users constitute the sample stratum. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 was used to analyse the data; descriptive and inferential such as reliability, validity, and ranking. The salient finding is that polluted ventilation, faulty ceiling lamps, faulty fire alarms, faulty wall (wall finishes/painting) and faulty window handles, were the condition of wards that were ranked highest (slightly bad) and merely affected. This implies that there is the need to use a better maintenance management approach to avert further decline in the condition of the hospital wards. Also, the research findings states that hospital buildings conditions and components of wards could be in the good state at all times using a holistic approach that will reduce more wards component depreciations for quality services outputs for the users. The wards conditions in the hospital buildings could be greatly improved by using proper strategies and maintenance management plans. Most of the studies about hospital building wards had focused on thermal comfort, but there is a paucity of studies that investigate the hospital buildings' condition of wards with low number in respondent active participation. Despite the constant rise in maintenance costs, there are numerous complaints and critiques of hospital buildings reported in the media. The lack of proper consideration for maintenance management and weaknesses in Malaysia hospitals has led to the deterioration of hospital buildings and reduced healthcare services. The study was being able to highlight some beneficial qualities and were also highlights some weaknesses of wards condition in the Malaysian hospital buildings which can tentatively be curtailed so users can be comfortable and satisfied

An Assessment of the State of Maintenance of Public Hospital Buildings in Southwest Nigeria

This study examines the state of maintenance of public hospitalbuildings in Southwest Nigeria, and in the process identifi es thesignifi cant difference(s) in the operational state of Federal andState-owned public hospitals within the study area. In achievingthe aim, the study adopts a survey technique with a total of552 questionnaires, comprising 206 sampled maintenancestaff and 346 users of public hospitals. The survey covers 46public hospitals representing 40% of the total number of publichospitals existing in Southwest Nigeria. The 46 public hospitalsconsist of all the 11 Federal-owned hospitals and 35 randomlyselected State-owned. Data collected are analysed using theKendall Coeffi cient of Concordance and Pearson Chisquare. Thefi ndings of the study reveal that the state of maintenance of publichospital buildings is good. While the structure/fabric and physicalconditions are rated highly, the services are poorly rated. Thisstudy, which hypothesises that there is no difference in the stateof maintenance, fi nds statistical difference in the performance ofthe services. It recommends that Federal and State governmentsaddress neglect in the services sector and plan their maintenanceprogrammes more effectively

Sustainability Ethics of Safety in the Building Maintenance Industry: Technical Manager’s Perspectives

Building maintenance (BM) projects usually involve various technical individuals such as building managers, architects, and building contractors. These individuals are usually concerned with certain issues pertaining to their views and experiences on a range of ethical topics surrounding BM industry activities. The issue of professional ethics plays an important role in quality-related problems in a BM project. Ethics is a vital component in producing a profitable long-term profit in the BM industry. This paper highlights the process practice of professional ethics and sustainability in the BM industry and how ethics influences the activities of BM projects. This qualitative case study recruited four (4) technical managers within the BM organisations. Data for this research were collected through semi-structured interviews with technical managers of the BM organisations. Results indicated that different types of unethical conducts impact BM tasks significantly. This study found that it is important to include professional ethics as a pre-requisite to attaining sustained and acceptable quality in BM. The study also suggests several approaches and methods enhance professionalism among BM professionals, which could help improve the quality in BM projects. The findings provide safety sustainability ethics process to BM organisation on how to address the ethical root issues when confronting the Malaysian BM industry

Building Pathology and COVID-19: A Literature Review and Commentary on Field Hospital Setting

In 2019, there was an emerging disease, namely Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). This disease firstly emerged in Asia before there was a worldwide spreading. COVID-19 is highly contagious. The pandemic results in more than 100 million infections worldwide (by the end of January 2021). Each country has to have a good public health plan to correspond with the increasing number of the patient. To correspond with the rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 patients, finding for sufficient space for patient care is needed. The presently available number of hospitals might be limited and it usually requires an urgent setting of the new building for management of the situation. The field hospital is usually set. In this work, the authors performed a retrospective literature review to summarize the available data on building pathology and COVID-19. The aim of the study is about the quality of the field hospital buildings and the defects in the buildings. The standard databases, SCOPUS and PubMED are used for literature searching. The derived publications are summarized and extracted for a conclusion. According to the literature analysis, there are very few publications on the topic of building pathology of a field hospital for COVID-19 containment. The role of field hospital in outbreak management is confirmed in thee literature. However, the specific report regarding building pathology of field hospital is limited. The newly constructed field hospital is usually in the rapid emergency mode. Based on the present analysis, it can show that there is a lack of concern on building pathology of the field hospital. Due to the rapid construction of field hospitals for COVID-19 outbreak management, the quality control and standardization are important. Further researches on the building pathology and quality management of field hospital are recommended

Building Pathology and COVID-19: A Literature Review and Commentary on Field Hospital Setting

In 2019, there was an emerging disease, namely Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). This disease firstly emerged in Asia before there was a worldwide spreading. COVID-19 is highly contagious. The pandemic results in more than 100 million infections worldwide (by the end of January 2021). Each country has to have a good public health plan to correspond with the increasing number of the patient. To correspond with the rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 patients, finding for sufficient space for patient care is needed. The presently available number of hospitals might be limited and it usually requires an urgent setting of the new building for management of the situation. The field hospital is usually set. In this work, the authors performed a retrospective literature review to summarize the available data on building pathology and COVID-19. The aim of the study is about the quality of the field hospital buildings and the defects in the buildings. The standard databases, SCOPUS and PubMED are used for literature searching. The derived publications are summarized and extracted for a conclusion. According to the literature analysis, there are very few publications on the topic of building pathology of a field hospital for COVID-19 containment. The role of field hospital in outbreak management is confirmed in thee literature. However, the specific report regarding building pathology of field hospital is limited. The newly constructed field hospital is usually in the rapid emergency mode. Based on the present analysis, it can show that there is a lack of concern on building pathology of the field hospital. Due to the rapid construction of field hospitals for COVID-19 outbreak management, the quality control and standardization are important. Further researches on the building pathology and quality management of field hospital are recommended

Assessing Delay Factors and Mitigation Measures in Building Maintenance Works

When it comes to the operation of a construction industry, building maintenance is critical. Any structure must be well-maintained to prevent minor problems from becoming major ones. Delayed building maintenance may result in increased repair costs as well as a reduction in building lifespan. To avoid this problem, research has been conducted to identify the factors that cause building maintenance delays and mitigation measures to resolve building maintenance delays. To achieve the study's objectives, extensive literature research and a questionnaire survey were conducted. Based on previous literature research, accumulated data was used to create a questionnaire for 250 Malaysian building maintenance delay factors and mitigation measures. A group of professionals and experts, including top management, project managers, engineers, architects, assistant engineers, technicians, human resources and administration, and others, participated in this survey. SPSS statistical software was used to analyse the collected data using the average mean index method and correlation. According to the data, the three highest mean index values from the factors that cause maintenance work delays are an increase in maintenance costs as the building age increases, an incorrect timing for work can incur higher maintenance costs when a critical job item is overlooked, and improper planning and budgeting. For correlation analysis, it was found that the correlations amongst the five groups of delay factors are having strong relationship with Pearson correlation value of 0.5. While for mitigation measures of the delay, it was found that three highest ranks are prefer other organizational structure follows by policy and objective and good communication. The findings can assist construction practitioners in prioritising their maintenance works

Procurement of Maintenance Management for Public High Rise Residential Buildings

In response to the Malaysian housing shortage, various interventions introduced. However, while the housing gap is widening, problems relating to the performance and condition of the buildings on account of defects and poor maintenance is increasing unabated. This study investigated the selection criteria of maintenance procurement methods for public high-rise residential buildings through a survey involving eight (8) maintenance managers of PRIMA housings. The five (5) main selection criteria are working relationship intuition and experience, quality level, condition of the existing building, and clarity of scope. The research prompts a need for strategic defect management for public housing. Keywords: PR1MA housing, low-cost housing, AHP, outsourcing eISSN: 2398-4287© 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6i17.288

Employee Perception of Maintenance Practices at Selected Public Healthcare Facilities in Niger State, Nigeria

Maintenance practice involves deliberate and orderly way that deals with planning, evaluation, organizing, and monitoring of maintenance activities and their expenses. An excellent maintenance management framework combines with learned and proficient maintenance staff can avoid safety and health issues and environmental harm; yielding longer assets life with less breakdowns, lower working costs and higher personal satisfaction for the users and occupants. Experienced and highly trained workers are inspired with a very friendly atmosphere and they are also in turn individual friendly.Lack of maintenance of our healthcare facilities is evident in the deplorable condition of the structures and equipment.This study assessed maintenance practices of maintenance staff at six (6) selected healthcare facilities in Niger State through a structured questionnaire. Data collected was analysed with Minitab 17 statistical software using descriptive statistics. The analysis revealed among others that majority of maintenance practice were preventive in nature, and that the maintenanceproblems in the healthcare facilities of Niger State was caused bylack of lack of funding and lack of successful adaptation of ineffective maintenance programmes and practices. The study recommended a proactive and aggressive approach to reduce the occurrence of defects in and around the healthcare facilities. It was also recommended that individual healthcare centres should solicit for both private and public funding for maintenance activities since they have partial autonomy to generate revenue internally for their operation

Assessment of Operational Maintenance in Public Hospitals Buildings in the Gaza Strip

The issue of public hospitals buildings’ maintenance in Palestine is regarded as a challenging issue. The lack of attention to maintenance management in hospitals has led to deterioration of buildings and reduced the health care services. The aim of this paper is to assess the current practice of maintenance process and management in public hospitals buildings in the Gaza Strip. A questionnaire survey that distributed to 13 public hospitals, which are administered by the Ministry of Health (MoH) in the Gaza Strip, was used to collect the primary data for this study. The results of this study present an overview of the current situation of the maintenance process in public hospitals buildings in the Gaza Strip. The findings indicated that while the corrective maintenance is implemented in all the 13 public hospitals, preventive maintenance is employed along with corrective maintenance, only in three hospitals. In addition, the findings indicated variances in responding to maintenance requests, while 50% of the maintenance departments took few hours to respond to maintenance requests, the rest took a few days to respond, this can be explained due to lack of spare parts and qualified staff. The study showed also that there is a shortage in training the hospital facility’s users on how to report maintenance problems. The results of this study indicated that most hospitals in the Gaza Strip have no maintenance plan for medical equipment; they do not have quality control system for repair and preventive maintenance. It is recommended to employ experience maintenance staff in order to prepare adequate maintenance plan and detailed check list, which is required for preventive maintenance. The MoH should organize specialized training courses in maintenance management for their staff in order to improve their effectiveness and efficiency. Hospitals in Gaza should make sure that all spare parts available in their storages for immediate action when required