Hospitals save lives, but they also consume vast amounts of energy and resources in the process. Healthcare leaders face an ongoing conflict between doing whatever it takes to care for patients while managing limited natural resources and the potential for over-carbonization. In other words, human-health solutions can also create a planet-health problem.
Overhauling a health system’s infrastructure to be more sustainable can be expensive and time-consuming. However, when done properly, the costs may be offset by operating and financial improvements that make it truly viable. What can healthcare providers do to maintain — or even improve — patient care while also reducing their negative impact on our environment and increasing profitability?
The future of healthcare is inseparably linked with sustainability, and it begins with the buildings in which care is delivered. Making real progress involves more than recycling. Healthcare real estate optimization is a proven solution designed to address these challenges head-on. It’s a comprehensive, action-minded approach that prepares hospitals for a healthier and more profitable future.
Let’s examine how real estate optimization can transform any healthcare system into an archetype of financial success, environmental stewardship, and a healthier future for everyone.
Why Healthcare Real Estate Optimization?
As healthcare facilities evolve and add services, it often results in departments being located in whatever space is available at the time. Over time, the overall design of the campus can become less efficient, translating to higher operating costs and unnecessary consumption. (In other words: wasted resources.) Optimizing real estate and realigning departments and functions can use space more efficiently and free up resources that can help achieve the organization’s growth objectives — which involves improving energy consumption and resiliency.
Healthcare real estate optimization begins with a clear understanding of a health system’s current state. Through meticulous analysis, sustainability experts can assess a facility’s energy consumption, space use efficiency, and overall functionality to establish a data-driven foundation for developing a customized plan to address problems and propose solutions.
The goal? Redesign a health system that prioritizes financial growth, more balanced asset management, improved patient well-being, and prudent environmental stewardship — all within the facility’s existing walls.
Planning a Real Estate Optimization Strategy
Real estate optimization is not an easy task, which is why most health system executives turn to multiple consultants — various business, real estate, facility, architecture, and engineering experts — to guide them through the process. Ultimately, all of these areas are directly connected to sustainability, and looking at them holistically will achieve better outcomes.
The key strategies typically involve:
Energy Conservation Measures
Healthcare real estate optimization experts start with implementing cost-effective upgrades, such as occupancy sensors, optimized HVAC controls, and energy-efficient lighting systems. They may also explore central plant upgrades, heat recovery systems, and electrification opportunities that can significantly reduce operating costs and environmental impact. Hospital campuses are often built with significant redundancy. A more strategic approach involves leveraging their existing infrastructure to improve energy consumption and resiliency.
Space Optimization
If there are ways to increase efficiency within a facility’s existing footprint, the real estate optimization process will uncover it. Experts will analyze space allocation and workflow patterns to find opportunities for improvement. This may involve rearranging departments, streamlining patient flow, or repurposing underutilized areas.
Right-Sizing Your Facilities
Sometimes, the most sustainable solution involves a change in physical footprint. It’s important to consider options like selling, right-sizing, or repurposing buildings that are too large, inefficient, or whose age essentially makes them incompatible with future modern healthcare needs. Leveraging those facilities can free up capital for strategic acquisitions or the construction of new, sustainable facilities in locations that better serve your growing needs.
Financial Strategies
Making sustainability a reality usually requires a significant upfront investment. An effective real estate optimization analysis will explore funding sources, such as grants, rebates, public-private partnerships, sustainability bonds, and strategic leasing, that can help finance a health system’s sustainability initiatives.
What Implementing Healthcare Real Estate Optimization Entails
Unlike other commercial enterprises, hospitals can’t afford to shut down for extended periods of time while renovations take place. Implementing infrastructure upgrades requires extensive project management and implementation oversight from beginning to end (plus ongoing oversight and follow-up after the improvements have been completed).
Whether it takes months or years, the objective is to ensure a smooth transition and minimize disruption to your ongoing operations.
Optimizing healthcare real estate for sustainability requires a multifaceted team of engineering, finance, real estate, sustainability, technology, and hospital operations specialists. It sounds complex (and it is), but it’s essential to address every aspect of a health system’s sustainability goals to create a comprehensive strategy that aligns with your financial and environmental objectives.
An expert sustainability partner like Oakwell streamlines this process. They have the tools, resources, and expertise to handle every aspect of the optimization journey, which will save time, minimize any administrative burdens, and ensure seamless project execution.
Actionable Plans for Achievable Results
Healthcare real estate optimization depends on measurable results. Hospitals need detailed, actionable plans that address their needs, avoid downtime, and stay within budget. After all, you want tangible benefits accompanied by a return on investment. Real estate optimization is a highly viable and valuable tool that, when integrated into your current strategic planning, will help propel a healthcare system toward a more sustainable future.
Implementing sustainability strategies can be expensive, but the long-term savings are substantial. Securing funding for sustainability projects, however, can be a hurdle. Be sure to work with financing experts with specific healthcare sustainability experience. They can remove financial roadblocks and source or supply the necessary funding to turn vision into action.
The Results are Worth the Journey
The team at Oakwell includes seasoned professionals with extensive experience overseeing large-scale projects, managing expansive real estate portfolios, and integrating sustainability goals into corporate strategies. Our deep understanding of the healthcare landscape allows us to provide full support throughout any health system’s sustainability journey.
Remember, healthcare real estate optimization is about more than the realized cost savings; it represents a strategic investment in the future. By fully utilizing your real estate assets, you can enhance efficiencies, create a healthier environment for patients and staff, and demonstrate your commitment to climate responsibility. These benefits also help enhance recruitment and retention, build a philanthropy pipeline, acquire sustainability bonds, and elevate your hospital’s reputation for being more proactive in caring for your community. Contact us to learn more.
