Abstract-Defects detected during the defects liability period of a construction project suggest that the project effectively somewhere during the project implementation stage. Clients, especially those with little project management experience are usually at a lost in trying to configure how this should be dealt with. Resolving issue relating to construction defects can be vexing and time consuming, but clients are frequently pressed for time to occupy and operate the building. Consequently, they unusually end up rectifying most of the defects themselves and at their own cost. In appreciating the need to resolve this continuing problem in design and build public hospital construction projects in Malaysia, a research was mooted to learn from the study of defects and investigated how best defects can be managed the study aim is to understand the nature of the defects to track their root cause. Four Malaysian public hospitals are chosen as the case study. Semi structured interview with the senior hospital management representatives were conducted to understand the reasons underpinning the defects. The findings suggest that with a comprehensive methodology in place, defects can be effectively tranced and categorized to track their cause. If this is in place, clients can have better recourse to address the issue of defects, particularly with respect to how the defects can be managed, who should be responsible and what not to be repeated in future. Keywords-Construction defects; design and build; public hospital; Malaysia; defects liability period