Challenges in the new year

As health facilities professionals enter the new year, they are being challenged by their organizations, surrounding communities and the inevitable march of progress to perform as never before.

On top of the usual demands for greater efficiency, ever-increasing regulatory requirements and a continually expanding list of job duties, they also are operating in a health care landscape scarcely imagined a decade ago.

While their organizations seek to redefine what it means to be a hospital in a rapidly changing health care environment, they must shepherd the design and growth of an entirely new range of facility types, enable a wide variety of cutting-edge health care technologies in many different environments and, above all, play an important role in maintaining patient safety.

It’s something we considered as we assembled this year’s editorial calendar. Although our 40,000-plus readers cover a wide swath of the design, construction and operations professions, they share a common dedication to advancing the health care built environment.

So, in addition to our regular complement of architectural features, mechanical-electrical-plumbing engineering tutorials, and environmental services and infection control coverage, we’ve put extra emphasis on exploring the technology and process innovations that enable health facilities professionals to achieve higher levels of performance.

These include building information modeling, Lean design, building automation and continuous commissioning as well as a new series of articles on health care real estate management. And, of course, we’ll continue to expand our coverage of the codes and standards that cast such a long shadow over the tasks of health facilities professionals.

Finally, to help readers measure their progress, we again will publish our annual “Trends in Health Care” issue as well as three benchmark surveys, this year covering health care construction, energy management and security.

The full calendar is available as part of our Media Planning Guide and can be accessed by logging on to www.hfmmagazine.com and clicking on the links labeled “About Us,” and then “Media Kit.” Download it now to see how we’re planning to help you meet and exceed your challenges in 2016.