Owner Organization for Successful Outcomes

Why: By far, the most important stakeholder in the process of shaping healthcare infrastructure is the owner. And yet, most owners don’t effectively exert the project controls available to them. Especially important, however, is the owner’s commitment and organization of the project. How owners organize their internal decision and accountability structure is perhaps the single most critical element in producing successful project outcomes. This white paper set out to document those strategies that have proven to be effective.

What: This white paper addresses the future of the owner’s role in project organization for healthcare design and construction. The 12 participants, who are each recognized leaders in the industry, were quite consistent in their responses to the various questions. This white paper details their conclusions, which include:

• An owner’s vision, goals and objectives must be clear, well-documented and fully shared at every level of the project team
• A set of expectations for quality and standards or guidelines that have not become outdated or stale help guide the planning, design, and construction process
• The project organizational model requires effective and timely communication
• A valuable method for accelerating quality decision making is to ensure that all the appropriate players are in the room at the same time, so all perspectives can be considered as decisions are made
• Team members should have integrity, be empathetic, understanding and genuinely care for others associated with the project.

How This white paper seeks to shed light on the strategies adopted by successful owners and identifies 12 themes that consistently arose from interviews with industry experts. Between May and July, 2015, the facilitator, individually interviewed 12 experts by telephone for 45 to 60 minutes, and recorded the conversations using an Olympus VN-702PC digital recorder. The recordings were then professionally transcribed. The facilitator made notes during the conversations and replayed the recordings to clarify content and identify quotations. The PDF version of this white paper contains the list of questions posed to the participants.