The Kansas City healthcare commercial real estate sector is responding well to the challenges of the pandemic and its continuing impact on the future, according to panelists at the 2022 MetroWire Media Healthcare Summit at Pulse Design Group on March 15.
Moderator Dennis Burns, president of event gold sponsor Pulse Design Group, guided panelists Abigail Clary, principal, director of Health Practice, CannonDesign; John Wilson, chief financial officer, University Health; Matt Jennings, VP and Healthcare Group manager, platinum sponsor JE Dunn Construction; and Kerri Jenkins, executive VP/chief operating officer, North Kansas City Hospital, through perspectives of care providers and real estate members of the health and medical sector.
One important effect of the COVID-19 pandemic was that North Kansas City Hospital asked the community for help and learned how to do better for its patients, Jenkins said.
“When it started, we were concerned about whether we had enough personal protection equipment (PPE), so we sent out a call to our community and asked for help,” she said. The response was amazing: People lined up with a wide variety of contributions from individuals (including patients), businesses and organizations.
A lasting impact was establishing a new foundation and adding a director to lead it in response to community members asking why the hospital didn’t have such a resource in place.
“Our public is saying we have to come down from the hill and serve where people are,” Jenkins said. “They will see us out in the community. We’re listening.”
University Hospital became Truman Medical Center’s new name during the pandemic to rebrand the facility’s true scope, Wilson said.
“We have two acute care hospitals, a nursing home, psychiatric units, a nursery and community housing — but it’s more than that: it’s also an academic medical center that is tied to the University of Missouri hospital network and medical school. We’re bigger than a medical service for the poor; it’s a care process. (The new name) reflects what we really do and what we really are versus the stereotype.”
Events like the pandemic have an impact on healthcare facility design, Clary said, and reveal the existence of issues of social justice and equity that might not have been as noticeable in better times. In response, CannonDesign brought in a new director of social impact as a consulting aspect of the company’s design work, and it’s already producing results.
A current project outside Missouri involves creating “a building design that will support building workers in the culture they’re in,” Clary said.
“We’re doing community research. We’re focused on experience strategy so when we create environments, they are directed at the ways staff actually can get out of the building. We found they needed to leave and have their own space, food, amenities and offices.”
Responding to that need also freed up in-hospital spaces for much-needed additional acute care services.
COVID-19 revealed that a lot of healthcare workers and facilities had to “stop what you’re doing and build team mass spaces,” Jennings said. “Now those spaces are being turned back into critical care units and typical space.”
Healthcare facilities learned to create multi-use spaces that can be used when the next pandemic arises, he noted. In fact, “the next question we’ll be asked to deal with is how to handle the next pandemic and not shut down the hospitals,” Jennings said.
Another silver lining of the pandemic has been a change for the better in mental and behavioral health services.
“Mental and behavioral health is moving away from being a stigma, with a lot of healthcare institutions taking that on and looking at how to do humane and healing space for those who need such services,” Clary said.
That’s important for University Health, where 58 percent of patients have mental health issues in addition to their physical concerns, Wilson said.
As the crisis changed both the type of space needed and the stress on staff, North Kansas City Hospital used former office space to add 40 beds.
“We included staff in the process — we asked what they needed,” Jenkins said. “We knew the space had to be multi-use and were able to do simple things (that staff asked for), such as windows inpatient room doors, mats to make it easier to stand for long times, massage chairs — and more dogs! We learned to listen to our staff.”
Technology also played a role in responding and will continue to be an important factor in future planning for healthcare real estate and space use, although there is still confusion about how to use it.
“A lot of people are talking about artificial intelligence (AI) and what we’re going to do with it,” Clary said. “We also expect to use the metaverse to communicate with clients and do transactions. Our clients have started to realize how much technology is an enabler (in treatment and service) and how we have to use it. You can’t build a healthcare facility and expect it to work if the systems don’t work together. Design firms are now acquiring or creating their own technology groups.”
“It’s now more like ‘The patient will see you now’ in the current environment, and the healthcare sector has to make buildings and systems more responsive and supportive of both patients and staff than ever before,” Burns said.
Panelists agreed that despite better numbers in terms of hospitalizations and fatalities, costs remain an issue for CRE projects in healthcare.
“Cost increases are real now and potentially will be in the future,” Jenkins said. “We have to understand it, get ahead of it and prepare for it. We have to have early involvement in a project so we can be part of the team and have an influence on different materials, schedules, construction methodologies and packages, and actively participate in the process.”
Healthcare professionals also must find creative ways to recruit and retain staff.
“Nurses are now hopping from place to place for the dollar (as agencies offer higher pay than hospitals),” Jenkins said. “It’s the number one thing that keeps us up at night. We are working with nursing schools and bringing more training onsite — we’re connected to every school in the state. We now have our own lab program. We’re looking at different care models, such as bringing back LPNs and having nursing education teaching how to lead teams. We’re paying for schooling and doing scholarships. We’re a 500-bed hospital and we spent $18 million more on clinical caregivers than last year.”
For University Health, the challenge is that 55 percent of patients are on Medicaid or have no insurance.
“Our revenue streams are the same or have been disrupted, so basic services are way down,” Wilson said. “Hospitals are under great stress. It is going to be a long-term recovery for hospitals. If not for funding from the government, we would not have survived.”
Wilson predicts an expansion in mental health and geriatric services and noted that the University of Missouri has received $100 million to expand its medical school.
CannonDesign has a consulting business that works with process flow and developed a supply chain approach to help hospitals create kits that can be assembled on-site, which allows the institution own the process.
The 2022 MetroWire Media Healthcare Summit panelists made it clear that CRE professionals are listening to clients and making changes that will strengthen the sector for the future.
Feature photo credit: MetroWire Media LLC; Click here to view 2022 Healthcare Summit photo album.