Health care construction trends set foundation for 2017

Before we usher in a new year, the editors of Health Facilities Management magazine decided to review some of the most popular articles in the magazine and on the website over the past year in a series of year-end blogs.

Today's blog highlight's HFM's most popular construction stories. Naturally, the annual Hospital Construction Survey ranked first among these articles, but other pieces focused on trends such as microhospitals and top performers like the Vista Award winners for team-based health care design. Here are some of the highlights:

2016 Hospital Construction Survey

More than 86 percent of respondents said that patient satisfaction is "very important" in driving design changes to health care facilities, with another 12 percent saying it's "somewhat important." And project teams are practicing what they preach, as fully 63 percent of respondents said they include the public in the design process. Visit the full 2016 Hospital Construction Survey to see more data, and check back in February when the 2017 survey will be posted on the HFM website.

New thinking for hospital master plans

"A good master plan is a living document that guides daily decisions," says Joan L. Suchomel, AIA, ACHA, EDAC, principal at Eckenhoff Saunders Architects, who authored this article. Indeed, given the frequent and unpredictable changes facing the nation's health care organizations, the traditional approach to master planning using a long-standing set of assumptions is no longer effective. Instead, Suchomel says, organizations must plan deliberately with an appropriate balance of both free imagination and rational caution.

2016 Vista Award winners

To be successful, health care design and construction projects require outstanding contributions from facility owners, architects, engineers and builders. Prime examples of this kind of teamwork are displayed by the winners of the American Society for Healthcare Engineering's 2016 Vista Awards. Honoring successful teams in new construction, renovation and infrastructure projects, the Vista Award winners have long been the gold standard in project management. Read more about this year's winners. 

Microhospitals help organizations meet their missions

Offering an affordable way to establish market presence and bring care to communities, microhospitals have become one of the more intriguing health care design trends over the past couple of years. Architects and health care organizations involved in these types of projects can learn about their costs and benefits.