Everything You Need to Know About Hospital Renovations

The healthcare industry is in the middle of a big transformation. Healthcare providers are constantly implementing breakthrough treatments and new technologies while complying with the current hospital models. At the same time, innovative design frameworks and building systems are rendering many healthcare facilities outdated.

For this reason, a hospital renovation is more than just a necessity; it also offers great opportunities to serve community needs, improve care, invite more patients and offer better healthcare services.

But where do you start? Should you apply for renovation loans? Who are the people you work with? How do you plan for a hospital renovation?

When Do You Need a Hospital Renovation?

The renovation of hospitals and other healthcare facilities should improve conditions for patients, the staff and facility managers while serving the vision and mission of the hospital leadership.

If you move forward with a renovation, you may solve the following problems:

• An old and rundown facility that is impractical and costly to maintain.
• Outdated medical technologies that cannot support the newer ones.
• Inefficient layouts cramp patients and the staff together, causing problems in the delivery of quality care.
• Wasted energy is caused by old building systems due to high energy costs.
• The purchase value of the hospital is lower than it should be.
• Rooms are uncomfortable. Consider learning more about scientific room temperature.

If your facility is dealing with these challenges or similar ones, a renovation may be needed.

How Will You Know If You Need a Renovation or New Construction?

In some cases, the hospital seems too old or problematic to fix. Renovation can address these problems even if it seems like new construction is the only way to go. In many cases, a renovation cuts new construction costs in half. So before you decide on whether you should renovate or build a new establishment, get in touch with an established construction team first to check your options.

Planning a Hospital Renovation

The best projects support your hospital’s vision and mission while meeting your budget and schedule without disrupting your active care program. To meet these goals, start your planning with research. Work with a project team and determine the most prominent challenges. From your research, you can create a strong strategy that assists you in the decision-making process.

1. Speak with everyone involved. Your healthcare facility needs to support everyone involved: facility manager, leaders, doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff. Speak with everyone to gain insight into their challenges so your project will address their needs.
2. Audit your building systems. Bring designers and engineers to your hospital to assess and quantify your facility’s operational efficiencies. This includes the following elements:
   1. Building systems such as electrical, mechanical and HVAC
   2. Traffic flows and building layout
   3. Energy usage (“Are their ways to conserve more energy?”)
   4. Safety of patients and the staff
   5. Medical technologies
   6. Code compliance
   7. Staff efficiency

These assessments will help your team prioritize challenges, promote efficiency and identify solutions in new building systems, layout planning and space allocation.

1. Assess your financial capacity. How much can you afford? This is a question often faced by renovating businesses. To determine, perform a complete evaluation of your financial capacity and align your project to your budget. Determine the areas and services that drive profit or cause loss, so you can improve on the areas in need.
2. Align your plans with your project. If the hospital leadership has already created the layout and strategic plans, present these to your team. Engineering, design, construction and estimation professionals can help you identify the gaps.
3. Plan adaptability. Hospital renovation is not a short-term investment. When you invest millions of dollars into a renovation, you want it to last for years. For this reason, you shouldn’t only plan and anticipate your hospital’s long-term needs; consider building adaptability, too. While the modular design isn’t always a must, you can design modern spaces specifically for the purpose of serving a variety of functions.

What are the Costs of Hospital Renovation?

Fortunately, the Internet has plenty of cost calculators that offer estimates. The renovation costs, however, are different from one hospital to another.

You can categorize costs into the following:

• Hard cost. Labor, materials and junk removal services.
• Soft costs. Costs for permits, surveys, architectural design, engineering and other project elements.
• Financing costs.

Other factors that influence the cost include:

• Project schedule. Fast-track renovations require more people, which can drive up the cost.
• The size of the project.
• Affects the availability of resources.
• Long-term and operational costs. 

Hospital construction projects can be complex. It takes a team of dedicated people to get the job right. To ensure a seamless hospital renovation, work with the right people and determine the right solutions.