ASSEMENT OF MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE OF PUBLIC HOSPITAL BUILDINGS IN ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

This paper assesses maintenance management practices in public buildings in Addis Ababa. It provides an insight into the concept of building maintenance management in public institutions. Maintenance management is a consolidation of any action carried out to restore or retain an item it to an acceptable condition. Buildings cannot remain maintenance-free throughout their entire life, even when they are still new, they still require maintenance and the maintenance doesn’t not only affect the life span of the building but also affects the safety and health of persons and properties. The study was conducted at the twelve public hospital buildings (case study). Physical observation, questionnaire surveys, and interviews were used to collect valuable data from the hospital staffs and patients. A literature review was also conducted to provide comprehension of general maintenance management practices in public buildings. Purposive sampling was used to select the key informants of the study and to determine sampling size. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in form of means, standard deviation, and presented using frequency tables. The findings indicate that: the public buildings are in a deplorable state because the public hospital buildings have adopted for corrective maintenance and immediate maintenance rather than preventive maintenance which has led to serious deterioration of buildings. Through physical observation, the findings also indicate that the major prevalent defects are: dilapidated roof covering, floor surfaces, ceiling, and defective electrical elements. The analysis identifies; absence of preventive maintenance practice, deterioration due to age and environment, mise uses of user’s poor maintenance culture, inadequate funds and inadequate training as the major factors that affect maintenance management in public buildings. In view of these findings and by way of recommendations, it was suggested that the management develops and implement a planned maintenance program, maintenance policy, provides adequate funding, develops and implements a facilities management plan, increases preventive maintenance practices and carries out regular assessment of buildings to ensure effective maintenance of the building elements.