Chapter one

Introduction

• Background of the study

Hospitals and health care buildings are regarded as the most complex indoor facilities with numerous end users of indoor spaces and functions. Hospitals are considered as one of the most difficult indoor facilities among public sector buildings to maintain, partly because of their complex engineering services. Since poor maintenance practices could lead to more frequent breakdowns, which may cause inconvenience to catastrophe, therefore, maintenance has to be more reliable, more efficient, and more cost effective. It is impossible to produce buildings, which are maintenance free. However, maintenance work can be minimized by good design and proper workmanship, in addition to, a proper management of the process that involves assessing performance, and maintenance management of buildings. In the past few decades, researchers had realized the importance of maintainability of buildings in achieving cost savings and better functioning of facilities. A prime aim of the maintenance process is to preserve a building in its initial effective state, as far as practicable, so that it serves its purpose effectively. The best way to achieve good maintenance is to have an effective maintenance management, which capable to meet the expected requirements of the end user

Poor maintenance may result in structural failure and money wastage. It is obvious that the maintenance is very important and needed for all sectors including properties sectors. Regard to the highly cost of maintenance it is important to study maintenance problem so that an effective maintenance can be carried out. Building defects arise through inappropriate or poor design, specification and construction as well as to insufficient attention given to building maintenance. The tropical climates condition such as in Malaysia, also one problem that can affect Significantly to the building defects. The correct identification of types of building material for maintenance purposes as to be cleaned, refinished, renovated or restored is the important step in the process of identifying building defect. An investigation should be carried out before any repair work is undertaken. The organizational needs to specify and supervise the technical requirement of investigating and diagnosing faults to assess condition. There is no doubt that improved quality increases costs in labor and supervisor. However, this careful construction of structures attracts a proportionate consequence in necessary maintenance and repair cost during the life of a building. The levels of cleanliness vary major in hospitals. The cleanliness of any hospital environment is important for infection control and patient wellbeing. Cleaning staff play an important role in quality improvement, publics confident to hospitals and in reducing infection and related risks. Cleanliness is the absence of dirt, including dust, stain, bad smell and garbage. If we state that a hospital is clean, we assume that it looks clean and that it is safe for patients. Unfortunately, there are microbes that invisible to the naked eye. Purposes of cleanliness include health, beauty, absence of offensive odor and to avoid the spreading of dirt and contaminants to oneself and others.

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