Overview of facilities management outsourcing services in Malaysia’s private hospitals

Facilities management (FM) is responsible for planning, designing, and managing buildings and their systems to enhance an organization's adaptability in a rapidly changing environment. Key issues include a lack of service quality consistency, difficulty in managing performance, cost overruns and hidden expenses, price inflation by contractors and contractual ambiguity. This paper employs a conceptual approach to identify the main contributing factors of outsourcing services and to provide several risks are related to outsourcing services in facilities management in Malaysian private hospitals. Through a comprehensive review of existing literature and relevant regulatory frameworks, the paper critically analyzes key factors, including scope of services, service level agreements (SLAs), capabilities and skills, recognized as customer, and service provision. However, several risks are associated with outsourcing, such as service or asset failures, provider underperformance, financial issues, cultural misalignment, loss of expertise, and labour related risks. The review of outsourcing practices in Malaysia helps hospitals make informed decisions when selecting service providers. © 2025 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved.