OBSTACLES OF IMPLEMENTING GREEN MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT IN HOSPITAL BUILDINGS

Abstract

Demand for green hospital buildings is increasing. While some hospital buildings were designed and constructed as green buildings, many hospital buildings have been upgraded to comply with the green requirements. Green hospital buildings require green maintenance practice. In comparison, procuring green buildings is easy as compared to green maintenance. Through unstructured interviews involving 3 hospitals, this research investigated the complications in the implementation of green maintenance in hospital buildings. The research found that lack of awareness, financial constraints/government support, new technologies, and top management support were the major obstacles toward the implementation of green maintenance. The results also confirmed that the maintenance of hospital buildings is corrective, reactive, and cost-driven. The salient finding from this research is that the maintenance organizations have a poor understanding of the concept of green maintenance practices. Saving energy costs are the main purpose of implementing green maintenance in hospitals. From an ontological point of view, the main findings of this research on the constraints of the implementation of green maintenance are generalizable to other types of buildings in and outside of Malaysia.