CHARACTERISTIC OF CAUSE AND PROBLEM IN MOVING-IN PROCESS OF HOSPITAL BUILDING: A CASE STUDY OF BHUMISIRI MANGKHALANUSORN BUILDING KING CHULALONGKORN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
Abstract:
Bhumisiri Mangkhalanusorn Building Project was initiated by King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital of the Thai Red Cross Society for solving scattered services problem and answering to the hospital insufficient capacity to provide treatment to a substantial number of patients. Another purpose is to use the building as a base to improve and enhance academic research and healthcare services to become medical excellence center. Bhumisiri Mangkhalanusorn Building has 29 above ground floors, 4 below ground floors, 224,752 square meters functional area and 1,332 beds capacity. The moving-in process was delayed causing the building to be nonoperational by the opening schedule. This contributed to a significant cost overrun and a considerable productivity loss. This research has objectives to study characteristics of the problems that cause a delay in the moving-in process, impacts from problem and causes of problems. This study was conducted by case study method. Data was collected from documents associated with the project and records and observation in Follow-Up Progress of Bhumisiri Building Meeting. The hospital moving-in process, was allocated into 4 stages: technical commissioning, functional commissioning, moving-in preparing and moving-in, consisted of work such as construction, building system, interior and medical equipment which from 10 case-studies we can imply that there are 9 problems which delay moving-in process: construction and superintendent problem, consequences problem, design problem, users requirement problem, implementation problem, planning problem, procurement problem, responsibility problem and management problem. Mentioned problems affect the moving-in process in 5 types: additional work, defect, delay, held-off work and suspended work. Moreover, the study also suggests that the area with the same functional face the same problems and building systems are a significant obstacle to the moving-in process. This study found that causes can be categorized into 9 groups: construction, superintendent, design, requirement specification, planning, implementation, management, project duration and consequences from other problems. The study also found that all causes were associated and sourced from 4 significant causes: requirement specification, works quality, construction management and project management. The study indicates the significance of project management which causes most of the difficulties during the moving-in process. This study will contribute to learn from the projects problems and improve future hospital building projects planning and managing, especially for public hospitals to prevent similar problems during the moving-in process.