The use of facility management strategies in swiss hospitals : an overview

Background: The meaning and benefit of a corporate strategy is undisputed. The theory offers a lot of material. In practice, varieties of strategy formulations are in place. Also in hospitals. The corporate strategy (or at least parts of it) are often publicly available on hospital’s websites. But what about their Facility Management (FM) strategies? There was no discussed overview of FM-strategies used in Swiss hospital available. Purpose: This paper is about the research being applied to describe the current use of FM-strategies in Swiss acute hospitals. Methodology: Based on theory about corporate strategy, health care and facility management, a quantitative online survey was compiled. The survey was sent to FM leaders (C-level) in 73 German-Swiss acute hospitals. It was answered by 35 participants (response rate 48%). Additionally, the websites of 28 university and cantonal hospitals were analyzed in order to find out what is openly accessible on the subject of strategy. Data was primarily analyzed with descriptive statistics. Results: One third of the hospitals do not have a clearly defined FM-strategy. With regard to the total number of Swiss hospitals, it can be assumed that this number is much larger. Additionally, it was determined for which FM areas strategies were formulated, which contents they cover, where the documents are published and how strategy implementation is ensured. Although this research relates to Switzerland, it can be assumed that many results also apply to other countries. Conclusion: The research led to an initial systematic overview of how Swiss hospitals use FM-strategies. Already that alone should encourage hospitals to reflect their (not) existing FM strategies and possibly proactively adjust them, so that their potential for the core processes benefit will be fully exploited. Although this research relates to Switzerland, it can be assumed that numerous results also apply to other countries. Unique value to the body of FM knowledge: It provides the foundations for further research into hospitals’ application of FM-strategies. An area whose potential for the benefit of hospitals core processes has not yet been fully exploited