Viability: A fundamental aspect of value creation in hospital projects

Increased population growth, demographic change and technological advancements are some of the challenges facing the healthcare sector in the near future. As new Norwegian hospitals are planned with a lifespan of 50 years, it is crucial that these hospitals both satisfy present and future demands of users and owners. This paper suggests that building viable hospitals is an important step in satisfying these demands. Therefore, the paper will address what viable hospitals are and how to ensure viable hospitals through the early phase of hospital planning. A comprehensive literature study as well as case studies of three Norwegian hospitals constitute the main sources of data in this paper. The case studies consist of both interviews and document studies. In total, 12 professionals involved in the planning or operations of hospitals have been interviewed. This paper focuses on issues associated with viability that occur early in the planning phase, and presents factors that are important to consider to achieve viable hospitals. The findings indicate that viability is a fundamental aspect of value creation in hospitals. Three factors are identified as being especially important for viable hospitals in the early phase: aligning goals and ambitions with users' and owners' needs; focusing on life-cycle planning; and involving users in a strategic way.