To demonstrate the potential of employing unconventional facility/facilities management (FM) performance indicators in healthcare settings to enable more strategic conversations between FM and business users concerning asset performance.
Background:
The theoretical background for a Lean asset approach and a high-level analysis of data from hospital trusts in England have been published elsewhere. This paper reports on the first uses of that approach in operational settings.
Method:
Observations are drawn primarily from three case studies.
Results:
The individual studies support the premise that the conventional emphasis on cost per square meter (m2) as a preeminent measure of FM disguises a portfolio of too much underutilized space. They provide a means of putting a healthcare estates strategy in terms that will engage business users.
Conclusions:
Despite a growing interest in Lean approaches in healthcare, the philosophy has not yet been extended to the estate. This study demonstrates that alternative benchmarks are possible.
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