PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS FOR HEALTH CARE

Abstract

The Public Private Partnership (PPP) model offers a solution to the current health care financing crisis in the public sector. By implementing the project as a PPP project the public administration intends to reduce the costs of running the hospital as a result of both increased efficiency in building and facilities management and transfer of construction and design risk to the private sector. Health Departments can focus on their core function without concentrating on functions of the facilities. The facilities are operated by a private company which has also been in charge of the new building or renovating process. One main objective for selecting the PPP model is transferring the risk to the private sector. In a PPP project the structural and procedural risks are no longer on the public side. The Health Department only provides medication and pharmaceuticals. The result of a PPP model offers a totally integrated health facility that incorporates the latest in information and management systems such as electronic patient records as well as leading edge medical equipment, including imaging modalities, laboratory equipment and patient monitoring. And to ensure that the consortium keeps the contract, a heavy penalty regulation may be applied in the event of insufficient performance or delivery failure. With PPP hospital projects lasting as long as the hospitalsi runtime and the macroeconomic situation of German hospitals, a general need of a change in planning behaviour of the public hospital provider comes up. As shown in prior projects in the education and administration sector PPP projects demonstrate the existence of synergies which should be also used within the health care sector. The required changes in interior hospital structures cause the need for new concepts like operating concepts. The operating concepts with the associated room program and the room equipment catalogues is the basis for the tender document issue and the performance description of a private PPP consortium by means of output specifications. The output specifications differ very much from conventional performance specifications for planning and building achievements or services and require a changed tender behaviour of the public hospital provider. IPM is involved as a project manager for the Asklepios Clinic AK Barmbek/ Hamburg, Germany. The new construction of the hospital is an important component of the future hospital care in Hamburg and is financed by Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg. The investment volume amounts to A 162 millions. After completion of the building project at the end of 2005 one of the recent hospitals of Germany is available with 676 beds in 2-storey to 5-storey buildings. The total construction period of the new building starting with laying the foundation stone in December 2002 was just three years of intensive construction time. The new clinic building is a compact nucleus, concentrating the latest technology available in medicine and communications. On 34,000 sqm floor space, eight operation theatres, seven smaller rooms for surgeries and other operations, as well as numerous single and double rooms for patients, equipped with media- and Internet plugs, TV sets, and ensuites. The building owner in this project is Molita which is represented by the CommerzLeasing. The user of the facility is the SBG (Servicebetrieb Geb‰udemanagement). The consortium imedical center Barmbeki, consisting of STRABAG AG and Imtech, is responsible for the building construction. The design was elaborated by the architects APB.