Healthcare industry experts Jeff Christmann, CEO, ADAMS Management Services Corporation; Shawn Frost, director of design and construction, Monument Healthcare Development, LLC; Jessica Marin, chief operating officer, Research Medical Center; Mark Sherfy, vice president, development group director, BHC; and Brian Silva, vice president, CannonDesign, tackled topics ranging from changes in healthcare facilities, patient expectations, master planning, staffing shortages and trends in the healthcare market at the MWM’s 2023 Healthcare Summit hosted by MetroWire Media. Katy Corrigan, regional director of healthcare – business development, GE Johnson, moderated.
Before the pandemic, healthcare facilities tended to see a patient room as only a patient room and an exam room as only an exam room. This model no longer works, according to Silva.
“Flexibility is the topic that’s top of mind for everybody… How can a typical medical surgery room, for example, also be an ICU room but also be a pandemic-safe room that’s designed for the next pandemic? We’ve seen a huge uptick and even floors that are completely pandemic designed,” Silva said.
“What today looks like may not be what a month from now looks like in our inpatient units,” said Marin.
“We’re seeing more hospitals—we do a lot of masterplans—rethinking the buildings, looking at different ways of building this stuff to squeeze out $5 or $10 million. That wasn’t the case in 2020. That wasn’t the case in 2019. It was built as fast as you can. Today they’re being very smart about their dollars, and it’s all about the return on the investment,” Christmann said.
Because of the expense of an inpatient stay, hospitals also are moving to increase outpatient options.
According to Silva, using technology, advancements in different therapies and different staffing models, healthcare facilities can provide “really great, high-acuity care” in an outpatient setting while providing the patient with a better experience.
Patient expectations about their care have changed. They want convenience and quick access. Consequently, many of the profitable services hospitals offer are moving to locations outside of a hospital campus setting and closer to where patients live.
“You want your care right next to where you live in the community,” said Christmann.
Despite a substantial increase in wages, the healthcare industry is facing staff shortages. According to Marin, HCA Midwest Health, of which Research is a part, is investing heavily in education, including offering tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness.
“How do we partner with schools? How do we build new schools? And how do we really take our capital and invest in our future and future-proof what we need from a staffing perspective,” Marin said.
“There’s a lot of opportunity in healthcare right now for people who want to be educated,” she said.
Other industry initiatives to attract and maintain staff include building housing for the nurses and staff and focusing on improving caregiver spaces, which may include providing access to food for overnight shifts and creating green spaces.
“The staff pool is low so you have to be competitive. We’re seeing a lot of caregiver innovation projects come forward, and we’re really rethinking what are the amenities or what’s the work environment for the staff, and in doing entire projects, thinking about how is the staff going to interact with the building, how can we make their life better or easier, make them more efficient, make them happier? Because if they’re happier, they’re providing better care and they are more likely to stay around,” Silva said.
According to Sherfy, one of the biggest opportunities in healthcare currently is in behavioral and mental health. Large hospitals are not the best place to treat patients suffering from anxiety, depression, trauma and substance abuse, he said.
“It’s sad to say, but behavioral health right now is booming across the country. . . it’s probably the. the biggest growing healthcare market in the country” said Christmann.
The balance sheets of healthcare systems have taken a big hit from COVID. Healthcare systems face increasing costs of debt, increasing costs of capital and inflation.
Frost said these are just temporary challenges.
“Really the market itself remains really attractive. There was a little bit of a cool down at the end of 2022, but the fundamental needs of healthcare still remain strong. And from an investor’s standpoint, it’s a safe haven type of an investment,” said Frost.
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