Identifying the Critical Factors Affecting the Operational Performance of Characteristic Healthcare Town PPP Projects: Evidence from China

The need for healthcare facilities has increased with aging populations. Public–private partnerships (PPPs) have a proven record of accomplishment in supporting the financial viability of various types of infrastructure projects. Thus, globally, governments recently applied the PPP model to characteristic health town (CHCT) projects. However, previous studies focused primarily on the success factors of PPP projects, whereas studies of the factors in CHCT-PPP projects’ operational performance have been limited. This study identified the critical factors in a CHCT-PPP project’s operational performance. First, a literature review and expert interviews identified 24 factors in a CHCT-PPP project’s operational performance. Second, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed to determine the common factors in the CHCT-PPP project’s operational performance. To establish the final factor system, 264 effective questionnaires were collected to investigate stakeholders’ views on the relative importance of different factors. Finally, importance–performance analysis (IPA) was performed to identify the four key factors in the CHCT-PPP project’s operation performance: customer satisfaction, government satisfaction, value-for-money index, and healthcare-product development. This study can serve as a reference for identifying the key factors in a CHCT-PPP project’s operational performance and promoting the development of CHCT-PPP.