Enhancing value creation at the front-end of a collaborative hospital construction project.

Hospital construction projects are characterized by a complex operating environment, the associated uncertainty is caused by a large number of different stakeholders, whose interests and goals can often conflict with each other. In addition, the continuous development of medical and nursing science and health technology at an ever-increasing pace makes it difficult to set goals and requirements for hospital projects. Healthcare development - as part of nationally and locally important strategic goals - often consists of large public construction projects, and these involve large investments and significant changes and impacts on established welfare systems. The main purpose of the dissertation is to generate new information for the value generation of collaborative hospital construction projects, especially for the front-end phases of the project.

This work applies a qualitative approach and a case study methodology. The research identifies that there is a lack of systematic processes for planning and managing the front-end phase of hospital construction projects. A more systematic and comprehensive process could help project owners and project stakeholders to define their goals and requirements more precisely, so that value expectations and implementation concepts, as well as the resources and skills necessary for the success of value creation, can be defined at an early stage of projects.

The dissertation research shows that the front-end phase of the project is the most important phase in hospital construction projects.