The Analysis of the New Royal Childrens Hospital Project - Case Study Example

The Analysis of the New Royal Children’s Hospital Project Name Instructor Course Name Date Abstract The project analysis described in this paper considers the project on the New Royal Children’s Hospital located at Parkville. The project was one of its kinds as the government had entered into public private partnership with the Children health Partnership Lty Limited. The CHP was tasked with the responsibility of designing and construction of the facility while the government would finance the project. The project scope took about four year to completion at a cost of approximately $1 billion. The Project Agreement clearly identified the different obligations that the different stakeholders were to carry out. The project was successful and commissioned in 2011. It had six levels of clinical, research, and educational departments all seated in an area of about 230000 square meters in a 4.1 hectares land. Project Analysis The New Royal Children’s Hospital Project Brief The project was approved to be carried out on November 2007. The project was a public private partnership that sought to develop a new Royal Children’s Hospital as an upgrade of the existing Royal Children’s site located on Flemington Road in Parkville. The project was under the supervisory responsibility of the Department of Human service (DHS). This project was one its kind being the largest hospital redevelopment funded by state. The idea for the government to engage in the public private partnership (PPP) follows the guidelines provided under Partnership Victoria framework. This model entails the private consortium taking charges of designing, building, financing and maintenance of the facility. The public sector bears the reasonability of the clinical services offered at the facility. The private sector partner for this project was the Children’s Health Partnerships Consortium made up of the International Public Partnerships as the main contractor, the Bovis Lend Lease as the builder, the Spotless Group was the facility manager, while the architect roles was under the Billard Leece. The partnership was to take place over the 25-year operating phase beginning after the construction and commissioning of the project. The state had an obligation to making of offering $3.742 billion to the contractor for the services rendered. The government also catered for the $27.3 million costs incurred during the various project phases as $4.6 million necessary for park reinstatement. On its part, the Royal Children’s Hospital was expected to contribute $ 90 million (Victorian Auditor General, 2009, p. 1). Upon completion and commissioning, the new Royal Children’s Hospital would have an expanded capacity able to deal with additional 35000 patients every year. The hospital would have more than 2000 car parks and over 500 bicycle spaces. In the hospital the accommodation and other facilities for parents was also increased. The development of the RCH ensured more recreation zones, better parking access and larger childcare centers were put in place. The hospital will also house modern research and education facilities. Other facilities include a wide range of shops offering diversified services to the staff, families, and other visitors. Project objectives It had been noted the Royal Children’s Hospital had inadequacies in its current facilities though service plan conducted in 2004 and review in 2005. This thereby pointed to the need to solving this problem. The model of the old hospital was adapted for times when health care was offered to a hospital at the bedside with definite visiting hours. The structure could not accommodate the increased complexity in technological advancements in offering a multidisciplinary care for the children. This indicates that one of the key objectives was to match the structures and facilitates with the modern technological innovations and the changes in model of healthcare. The new Royal Children’s Hospital was developed with an objective of improving eh service and care delivery. In this sense, the structure was developed in a way that allowed practicing family centered care in an environment that considered the cultural and spiritual backgrounds. The design in the new facility was structured with an aim of offering a therapeutic environment for the patients, families, and staff and other community users in the park. The new facility facilitate operational efficiency, by making optimal use of the people and resource available and make it possible to meet the current and future service plan goals. Another objective was transforming the Royal Children Hospital into a world class facility that would attract the best people. In this sense, people are meant to indicate the staff available for the institution. By upgrading the facility trough this project the hospital would succeed in pulling in and retaining high quality, committed and inspired staff. The project was also designed with an aim of being future proof and flexible. The new projected aimed at developing a facility that would have the abilities of matching to the new technologies. Changes in the pediatric health services, clinical management systems and care models, as well as the changes in government policy and standards would be comfortable accommodated without the need for a physical restructuring. The project further aimed at developing a facility that would offer an active learning environment by equipping it with necessary facilities for teaching research majorly on the clinical thematic areas. This would create a strong bond between the RCH and the main education and research partners (Department of Human Services, 2008, p. 13) Stakeholder Analysis The project aimed to develop a constructive relationship with diversified users, staff, the members of the local community and communities of interest in Royal Park. The government is one of the main stakeholders in this project. The government played the role of the contracting entity for the project and a signatory for the partnership process. The state grants the mandate of executing the contract to the Ministry of health. In this sense, the Ministry of Health then entered into contract with Children Health Partnership Pty Ltd to come up with a design, do construction, and finance the project. The Royal Children Hospital is an important stakeholder. The institution is under the Health Services Act 1988. While the health institution is not a member of the Project agreement, it is a crucial stakeholder as it was selected by the government to be the organization that offered the healthcare services and other related functions. The CHP is the other main signatory for the project agreement. It is the organization that has been charged with the responsibility of delivering the project. This is the entity that has introduced there consortium partners through contractual relationships to offer different services and products for the project. The weight of fully delivering the project lies on the CHP organization. The equity provider for the project was Babcock and Brown International who provided necessary equity for CHP to successfully accomplish the project. Project management The complexity of the project in size and scope introduced key challenges to the management of this project. For the successful completion of this project, different management systems and processes were initiated and put in place to guide the project from conception to commissioning. There was a project team established at the level of DHS which covered the executive and strategic issue of the project. The involvement of this team was as per the agreements in the public private partnerships. This executive and state oriented management team dealt with both contract management and the project activities issues. One of the necessary tools that were required for the successful running of this organization was the contract administration manual (CAM). This is a centralized tallying of documentation that includes all tools and processes required in the managing of the contract. The issues covered in this manual include governance, probity & compliance, contract administration, methods of reporting and monitoring performance, communication process, dealing with relationships and dispute resolution, risk management , how to cater for knowledge and information, means of accommodating and dealing with change as well as contingency planning. The development of this manual is identified as important for the successful accomplishment of the contract management plan (Victorian Auditor General, 2009, p. 64). The state’s project team also engaged in some activities more skewed to project management processes. The government bore the responsibility of approval by the government. The project agreement had clearly identified clear milestones that needed to be attained during the construction phase. This is important for keeping the track on the progress of the project as per the schedule offered. The technical completion date had been issued at 21st September 2011. For the successful implementation and completion of this project there were clearly defined roles for the state and the CHP. In the design and construction, the CHP was expected to spearhead all aspects of design, construction, and commission of the institution. This included; working on the refurbishments of the old buildings, coming up with design and commissioning of the research and education areas, ensuring the installation of the necessary equipment and coordinating the development process (Department of Human Services, 2008, p.15). The state was charged with the responsibility of making payments to the CHP, develop necessary legislation and town planning to accommodate the construction and assess the construction plans forwarded by CHP (Department of Human Services, 2008, p. 16). Outcomes The New Royal children’s Hospital was completed in a period of four years at a cost of $1 billion. The hospital occupies floor space of 231000 square meters with 15400 of these being the hospital and the rest is the parking lot. The clinical facilities constructed under this project had 180 multiday bed, 30 pediatric intensive care beds, 30 neonatal intensive care beds, short stay beds and surgical beds, and mental health beds. The new project had an increased bed capacity of over 16% from the previous capacity. The new hospital incorporate relevant design features important in helping convert the RCH into a patient and family focused center. The rooms developed were mostly single rooms comprising of bathroom, a clinical area and a family zone. On each ward level there were family lounges. References Read More