Need to improve facilities’ management in Nigerian public hospitals

This is a clarion call for improvement in the area of performance measurement in facilities management in Nigerian public hospitals.  Public hospital buildings suffer because management is often abandoned, thereby hindering the operations of the hospitals significantly. Most government hospitals have no tools for measuring facilities management performance.  It is vital for every district hospital […]

This is a clarion call for improvement in the area of performance measurement in facilities management in Nigerian public hospitals. 

Public hospital buildings suffer because management is often abandoned, thereby hindering the operations of the hospitals significantly. Most government hospitals have no tools for measuring facilities management performance. 

It is vital for every district hospital to have an effective facilities management performance measurement plan. Hospitals in Nigeria lack maintenance culture and are faced with many challenges. For instance, lack of proper performance facilities management system in public hospitals creates problems of various nature. 

Facilities management is viewed as a secondary function in public hospitals, and professional facilities management expertise barely exist in the hospitals. Consequently, few hospitals have control over the maintenance of their facilities. Public hospital buildings suffer as facilities management functions are often neglected, thus negatively impacting the operations of the hospitals. 

Many hospital organisations are transforming their cultures as means to improve performance. Facilities management has a positive role to play, either through supporting the hospital organisation to be part of a holistic drive for change, or by acting as a catalyst, providing way for others to follow. 

A research conducted in 2002 concluded that hospital organisations use performance measurement systems as the basis for managements to perform better. For these benefits to be realised, it is essential for hospital organisations to implement effective performance measurement systems. 

Another research in 2012 identified the following important areas in which facilities management improves the general performance of the hospital organisation: cost reduction, improvement in productivity, reconfiguration of property, disposals, delivery of service to external clients, space planning and better quality utilisation, improved procurement policies and quality enhancement. As shown in this argument, performance measurement of facilities management has constructive impacts on improving the hospital organisation. 

If applied appropriately, such development in Nigerian public hospitals would improve the general quality of service delivery tool for measuring facilities management performance.

Interest in performance measurement increased radically during the 1990s in both management and academic literature. Performance measurement systems developed as a means of monitoring and maintaining organisational control. It is a process by which an establishment safeguards itself, pursues its strategies and achieves its general goals and objectives. 

Performance measurement frameworks were historically developed as a means to monitor and maintain organisational control. This is the process of ensuring that an organisation pursues strategies which could lead to the achievement of overall goals and objectives. In attempting to change the focus of an organisation, aan expert in 2012 suggests that performance measurement is a significant agent of change. 

Properly implemented performance measurement permits an organisation to evaluate its progress and performance with respect to its set objectives and strategies, which Nigerian public hospitals lack. It is also to be expected that a maintainable built environment should prominently affect understanding of sustainable developmental goals. Where the Nigerian government is not involved, a suitable performance measurement system could allow Nigerian public hospitals to recognise areas of strengths and weaknesses and to plan future action with the goal of improving their performance. 

  

Dr Waheed Oseni, an estate surveyor and valuer, is a senior lecturer at the University of West London.