Sustainable facilities management practice and its perception in health care organisations: A Delphi survey

Abstract

Health Care (HC) is one of the most polluting industries and recognised as the second energy-intensive sector. Integrating sustainability into Facilities Management (FM) is imperative and could significantly contribute to reduce energy consumption, waste and day-to-day operational costs. However, operations of FM vary upon facility types, business sector, organisation characteristics, cultural context and organisational scale. Thus, this study examines the current practice of sustainable FM and its perceptions in HC organisations in Sri Lanka. A Delphi survey was administered to 10 experts in two rounds, who are specialised in FM practices in the HC organisations. A semi structured questionnaire was deployed and collected qualitative data were analysed using content analysis whilst quantitative data were analysed through mode, mean and quartile ranges to reach consensus. With respective to FM practice in HC it was found that 8 out of 10 organisations had no separate departments for FM to conduct FM practices. The functions were collectively carried out among departments namely; engineering, quality assurance and housekeeping. Operations delays incur additional costs and disputes were reported constantly. Also, building services was found to be the topmost FM service practiced. Integration of sustainability is at a moderate level and FM practitioners face higher level of constraints of which “high costs” obtained the highest rank. The study is novel in offering the state of the art of FM practice in HC organisations and adds values and provides recommendations for further research to maximise the contribution of FM towards sustainable practice. It thus directs FM practitioners to support the future enhancement of HCFM.