This month marks the launch of BD+C’s inaugural Healthcare Annual Report. The second in an ongoing series of “state of the state” building sector reports—the 2023 Multifamily Annual Report published last October—the 2024 Healthcare Annual Report features more than 60 pages of trends, innovations, opportunities, and challenges for the U.S. healthcare construction sector.
Here is a sneak peek of the takeaways and observations shared in the report:
- Even with the rise of outpatient and specialty facilities, mega-hospital projects are not going away. Experts say several factors are at play, including the preference for private patient rooms, industry consolidation, increased care services, population shifts, and inflation. “A billion dollars doesn’t go as far as it used to,” said one expert.
- Patient communication goes high-tech. Interactive patient care systems bring the promise of improved patient communication, increased efficiencies in operations, and greater data collection. One GC said many of its healthcare clients are “aggressively pursuing implementing these new technologies.” However, first cost concerns and IT integration issues can pose obstacles to implementations.
- Trauma-informed design is not just for mental health facilities. TiD was mentioned by several healthcare experts, and not just for behavioral/mental health spaces. Urgent care centers, even entire health campuses, can benefit from TiD approaches like biophilia, daylight, art, protective spaces, and rooms and areas that feel safe and separated.
- Health facilities as destinations? Posh, daylit waiting and exam rooms, higher-end dining options, outdoor eating and respite spaces, specialized spas, wellness gardens, walking paths. These are just some of the advanced design features and amenities that are becoming commonplace in healthcare environments as health systems work to attract healthcare consumers.
- Hospitals make plans for behavioral and mental health. Health systems are getting creative to safely provide care for patients who are dealing with severe mental/behavioral health issues. Design strategies include secure entry points, fortified building materials like impact-resistant drywall and safety glass, and exam rooms that can quickly flex to behavioral health patient use. For instance, one project features hidden garage doors in the ceiling of flexible patient rooms that come down and cover medical gasses in the headwall.
Download the report at: BDCnetwork.com/2024-Healthcare-Annual.
Related Stories
Healthcare Facilities | May 1, 2017
Designing patient rooms for the entire family can improve patient satisfaction and outcomes
Hospital rooms are often not designed to accommodate extended stays for anyone other than the patient, which can have negative effects on patient outcome.
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 28, 2017
Can healthcare be retail?
Healthcare systems have much to learn from retail. While they have been laser-focused on delivering exceptional patient care on their primary campuses, they face an onslaught of new challenges as they embrace a retail strategy to expand outpatient services and their ambulatory network.
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 24, 2017
Treating the whole person: Designing modern mental health facilities
Mental health issues no longer carry the stigma that they once did. Awareness campaigns and new research have helped bring our understanding of the brain—and how to design for its heath—into the 21st century.
Sponsored | Glass and Glazing | Apr 14, 2017
Azuria glass from Vitro provides hospital with the desired pop of color
Located in Wilmington, Delaware, Nemours/duPont hospital has undergone a series of expansions since it was founded in the 1940s.
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 14, 2017
Nature as therapy
A famed rehab center is reconfigured to make room for more outdoor gardens, parks, and open space.
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 13, 2017
Investors and developers are still avid for medical office buildings
A new CBRE survey finds that equity set aside for purchases continues to outshoot the availability of in-demand supply.
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 13, 2017
The rise of human performance facilities
A new medical facility in Chicago focuses on sustaining its customers’ human performance.
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 11, 2017
Today’s community centers offer glimpses of the healthy living centers of tomorrow
Creating healthier populations through local community health centers.
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 2, 2017
Comfort and durability were central to the design and expansion of a homeless clinic in Houston
For this adaptive reuse of an old union hall, the Building Team made the best of tight quarters.
Healthcare Facilities | Mar 31, 2017
The cost of activating a new facility
Understanding the costs specifically related to activation is one of the keys to successfully occupying the new space you’ve worked so hard to create.