Five Ways to Strategize for Healthcare Facilities Planning

By Chase Miller and Melanie Harris

Managers need to incorporate more flexibility into their strategic facility planning to foster resiliency.

Healthcare organizations face daunting challenges from countless forces beyond their control. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic and its rapidly mutating variants has made it especially difficult for healthcare organizations to develop long-term facility planning strategies as they continue to grapple with rising caseloads and caregiver shortages, and fatigue. As prominent as the COVID-19 pandemic has been and continues to be, hospitals also must prepare for other potentially disruptive events that could threaten their operations. There is no time to wait until the end of the pandemic because the goalposts continue to move.

Now is the time for healthcare facilities managers to understand and clearly define their organization’s priorities. Begin by identifying the most significant need for each facility in the system. Then address those needs strategically in a way that maximizes value while minimizing expenses.

Moving forward, managers need to incorporate more flexibility into their strategic facility planning to foster resiliency. These key challenges, considerations and insights can help managers ensure adaptability in the face of changing economic conditions.