Planning and Managing New Construction

Planning and Managing New Construction
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Planning and Managing New Construction
It is important for healthcare facilities to be constructed according to standards that meet all the requirements of a healthcare profession. It follows that people and companies constructing healthcare facilities must fulfill their responsibilities to the latter. An important task in the construction of a healthcare facility is facility management. What is facility management? Facility management could be elucidated as a profession encompassing multiple disciplines to ascertain the functionality of a construction environment by integrating places, processes, people, and technology. In order to manage the construction of a healthcare facility effectively steps such as the bidding process, contract administration, project monitoring, contract payment, and project closeout must be followed (Wiggins and Wiley, 2010). Therefore, the facility manager must fulfill his/her responsibilities in all the steps involved implying he/she has is important in the construction of a healthcare facility.
State laws require that hospitals advertise for projects exceeding $50,000 to allow contractors to bid for construction projects competitively (Nicholas and Steyn 2008). It follows that the facility manager has a duty of ensuring that the bidding process for constructing a healthcare facility is free and fair. It is critical that the facility manager supervises the negotiation and bidding process by forwarding contract documents to prequalified bidders. Negotiation occurs where the facility manager escorts prequalified bidders to the construction site and allows them to ask questions related to the project (Nicholas and Steyn 2008). The facility manager, together with his/her team must respond to all questions from the prequalified bidders. The facility manager then advertises for prequalified bidders to submit their quotations, which he/she opens in the presence of two witnesses. The facility manager, together with a team of qualified personnel, then vets the bids to choose the lowest and qualified bidder for the project.
After selecting the lowest and qualified bidder, the facility manager then sends the agreement and additional contract documents, which are signed and returned to the hospital. Before the project begins, approval by the funding agency is necessary especially if the source of funding is external (Wiggins and Wiley, 2010). The hospital then executes the documents from the contractor, which makes the contract valid. The facility manager then sends a notice to proceed to the contractor unless stated otherwise in the bidding contract. It is notable that the facility manager could also provide the contractor with a license for early construction when time is crucial. The license allows the contractor to move to the construction site to undertake preliminary construction work. It is not...