Exploring collaboration in hospital projects’ front-end phase

Abstract

Hospital projects, like other major projects, start with the front-end phase, which considerably affects projects’ strategic success. There is an expressed need for more knowledge of the front-end to improve and thus strengthen the odds for strategic success. Hospital projects are complex and challenging to run much due to multiple stakeholders and societal impact. Hospital projects’ stakeholder multiplicity makes collaboration a fundamental activity in the front-end. In this paper, we propose a framework for front-end collaboration in hospital projects constituting the following interdependent categories: contexts, structures, means and catalysts. The categories interact to make collaboration happen and make collaboration work, indicating that the different categories should be considered at different times in the planning process. Successful collaboration may positively affect project outcome and leads to innovation and learning, which are important assets for hospital projects in identifying successful future solutions, hence strengthening the projects’ odds for long-term success.