Future-Proofing Healthcare: Five Reasons Why a Strategic Facility Study is Essential for Sustainable Growth

Why Would You Initiate an SFS?

Initiating an SFS in a healthcare context offers numerous advantages:

It provides a better understanding of your current facility(s) state. With an SFS, you can gain insights into the condition of your facilities, which is crucial for maintaining patient safety and operational efficiency, and identify critical deficiencies that could impact patient care or operational workflow.

It assists with short- and long-term maintenance and facility planning by helping you plan for immediate and future maintenance needs to enhance operational effectiveness. You can also assess whether any facilities should be repurposed, renovated, or decommissioned.

It prioritizes capital and maintenance expenditures. Use the study to make informed decisions about resource allocation to maximize patient care and operational efficiency.

It identifies opportunities for enhanced sustainability by discovering strategies to improve your environmental impact and reduce energy costs, benefiting both your organization and the community.

It can supply evidence for strategic planning. An SFS can provide concrete data and insights to support your strategic initiatives, budget requests, and funding proposals. It can also validate internal assessments with an independent perspective, enhancing credibility.

What Does the study Include?

The Process: During the study, we examine existing drawings to analyze current architectural and engineering documents. Meetings with facilities leadership and site visits or walkthroughs with staff help to identify existing conditions and future needs.

A review of building and life safety codes and FGI Guidelines ensure compliance with applicable healthcare regulations and assess facilities against standards for healthcare environments.

Lastly, we estimate the financial implications for addressing any identified issues to aid in decision making and provide a timeline for anticipated facility needs.

The Deliverables: Healthcare facility leaders that initiate an SFS should expect to receive a detailed report that includes building data, executive summaries, detailed narratives about conditions, and cost analyses. Key analysis measurements provide the average age of facility assets and Facility Condition Index (FCI) for informed planning and budgeting.