Plans to build a leading healthcare facility in Jordan – including multiple medical centers of excellence – is pacing ahead with U.S.-based Hill International completing the design review and setting the path forward for the project to move into its next phase.

“Design review of the masterplan is now over and we just concluded a workshop in Amman on best practices,” commented Hill Senior Vice President Said Mneimne, “Guard rails have been installed to ensure the project stays on time and within budget. And, we supported the client in making the best medical planning decisions by benchmarking similar international projects.”

Hill International has been providing construction management services for the project since late 2022 when the firm awarded a contract by the Saudi Jordanian Investment Fund (SJIF) for the $400 million healthcare project in the capital city of Amman.

SJIF is majority-owned by Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF and the remaining ownership is with 16 commercial and Islamic Jordanian banks. Formed in 2017, SJIF invests primarily in three sectors: healthcare and tourism; private-public partnership infrastructure projects; and growth capital.

The Jordan healthcare project will have a built-up area of 92,500 SM in phase 1 and will establish a university hospital with 328 beds, 72 outpatient clinics, a medical school and medical research center for 600 students, nurses and students’ dormitories, and a health and wellness center.

The project will also include five medical centers of excellence, each focused on providing care for the most common and fastest-growing non-communicable diseases in Jordan and the region, including cardiology, oncology, neurology, gastroenterology, and orthopedics, while also supporting advanced research through four centers in the fields of genomics and precision medicine, stem cells and regenerative medicine, health systems and public health, and bioinformatics.

Strategically located on the airport road, near the Ghamadan area, the project will provide access to patients from across Jordan and abroad.

The upcoming milestones for the project now include scheduling and preparing the contracting strategy, Mneimne said, noting Hill International will review the concept and schematic design and kick off tendering for the early works construction packages like soil testing and site preparation.

Knowledge Transfer, BOT Model

The project, which seeks to transfer foreign knowledge and expertise into Jordan and enhance the Arab nation’s competitiveness in medical tourism and medical education, will be implemented on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, will see the ownership transferred to the Jordanian government at the end of the investment period.

SJIF’s unit – Saudi Jordanian Fund for Medical and Educational Investments Company (SJFMEI) – has signed with the joint venture of Dar Al Handasah (Shair and Partners) – and Perkins & Will International to carry out engineering design and supervision services for the project.

The healthcare facility will be implemented in partnership with two of the most prestigious global institutions in the fields of healthcare and medical education:  the University College London (UCL) Medical School, as the academic partner, and UCLA Health in Los Angeles, California (UCLA), as the clinical partner.

The last hospital project to be completed in Jordan was the Al Abdali facility in 2015, which involved renovation and conversion of existing buildings.

A Global Reach, a Regional Understanding

Hill International has the expertise in providing project and construction management and supervision services for healthcare globally as well as in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with the company putting all its hands to the deck for the SJIF project, Mneimne said.

In MENA, Hill provided design management, design review, and project management services for the Silaa Community Hospital in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi at the Saudi Arabia border. The project ensured that patients enjoy a high level of healthcare services within Silaa and surrounding areas. The main hospital block is a two-story building comprising main hospital functions, in addition to separate buildings for supporting facilities and services. With a total built-up area of approximately 15,000 SM, the hospital includes medical departments/functions, staff accommodation, mortuary, mosque, and helipad. The project also included soft/hard landscaping, boundary wall, internal roads, utilities, and services.

Hill is also providing project management services during the design, procurement, and execution stages of the Cairo University Hospitals Renovation Project. The project involves the renovation of all existing Kasr Al-Ainy hospital buildings and facilities and the construction of additional buildings.

Located in downtown Cairo on the University’s Faculty of Medicine campus, the hospital currently holds 3,200 beds and receives approximately 7.3 million patients annually, performing around 2.2 million X-rays, 80,000 CT scans, and 45,000 ultrasounds each year.

The goal of the project is to transform the hospital into a facility organized by specialist departments, rather than general care, and to increase hospital capacity by some 300%. This will allow Kasr Al-Ainy to serve more patients at a lower cost, while also improving educational and training capabilities for students and staff.

Combined, these three projects demonstrate the breadth and depth of Hill’s healthcare expertise in the MENA region, explains Mneimne. The goal in Jordan as in Cairo and Abu Dhabi is to leverage Hill’s global best practices in the sector at the local level, equipping clients with proven best practices tailored to their specific project requirements and challenges.