Culturally appropriate organization of water and sewerage projects built through public private partnerships.

This paper contributes to the pursuit of socially sustainable water and sanitation infrastructure for all people by discovering statistically robust relationships between Hofstede's dimensions of cross-cultural comparison and the choice of contract award types, project type, and primary revenue sources. This analysis, which represents 973 projects distributed across 24 low- and middle-income nations, uses a World Bank dataset describing high capital cost water and sewerage projects funded through private investment. The results show that cultural dimensions explain variation in the choice of contract award types, project type, and primary revenue sources. These results provide empirical evidence that strategies for water and sewerage project organization are not culturally neutral. The data show, for example, that highly individualistic contexts are more likely to select competitive contract award types and to depend on user fees to provide the primary project revenue stream post-construction. By selecting more locally appropriate ways to organize projects, project stakeholders will be better able to pursue the construction of socially sustainable water and sewerage infrastructure.

2006 hospital building report. The boom goes on.

Our survey of construction trends finds that the most significant expansion and replacement of U.S. hospitals since the post-World War II building spree continues to fuel a red-hot market. And the building boom is likely to last through the rest of the decade.

Isn't that special. Louisiana hospital could be the first--and, if successful, probably not the last--to finance a new facility by selling bonds to doctors.

Lafayette (La.) General Medical Center is trying to raise funds for a $75 million heart hospital by selling bonds to doctors. If the sale is successful, a flood of similar deals could follow. The project's chief architect, Robert Rosenfield, left, says his firm already is working on 25 to 30 additional deals. What effect will this type of financial arrangement have on the healthcare industry?

Building boom.

After a period in which financial issues forced many hospitals to postpone needed construction projects, a building boom is under way at last. Aging facilities, many dating to the heyday of Hill-Burton funding after World War II, are ill-equipped for the enormous changes in health care delivery, from new technology to the emphasis on outpatient treatment. Innovative financing strategies are helping to feed the trend.