Determinants of Maintenance Cost of Hospital Buildings: An Artificial Neural Network Approach

Abstract

Hospital maintenance organizations are under constant pressure to plan maintenance work due to insufficient budgets. The ability to predict maintenance costs is a significant function of the maintenance organization. This paper reports a study that investigated the critical determinants associated with the maintenance costs of hospital buildings. The research developed a questionnaire instrument that included 18 determinants of the maintenance cost of hospital buildings. The average maintenance cost is about RM550, 000, and the average age of the buildings is about 20 years. The size of most of the hospitals is more than 21, 000 square meters. Using maintenance cost as the dependent variable, an artificial neural network model to predict maintenance cost was presented. The model revealed that the critical determinants of maintenance costs are the size of the hospitals, improper use of the hospital buildings, poor budgeting, absence of forecasting techniques, and high-performance expectations of the buildings. This research provides new information on the cost profile of the maintenance cost of hospital buildings.