The 2016 Hospital Construction Survey revealed the impact of consumerism on healthcare facilities. Health Facilities Management and the American Society for Health Engineering of the American Hospital Association conducted the survey of 3,125 hospital and health system executives.
Here are 12 survey highlights:
1. Upwards of 86 percent of respondents denoted patient satisfaction as "very important" when considering design changes to health facilities and services.
2. More than 50 percent of respondents reported implementing noise-reduction construction material to boost patient experience.
3. Hospital executives are also influenced by the patient demand for privacy and comfort, with 66 percent of respondents noting conversion of semiprivate rooms to private rooms.
4. Forty-nine percent of respondents said they are expanding patient room square footage. This trend may flip, however, as more facilities are reconsidering smaller patient rooms.
5. About 75 percent of respondents noted the inclusion of wifi access in their facilities.
6. Patient safety is also driving construction decisions, with 61 percent of executives saying they implemented designs to prevent injury from falls. About 50 percent mentioned their facilities use patient lifts.
7. The patient experience has become front and center in the design process, with some firms even calling on patient experience studies as they develop plans. Some executives said their facilities created new chief patient experience officer positions.
8. About 63 percent of executives reported including the public in the design process, with 79 percent of them offering feedback before design development.
9. Large-scale new construction seems to be on the decline. Seventy percent of respondents reported they are either working on construction or plan to in the next three years, but 75 percent of those projects were labeled as expansions or renovations.
10. Of respondents, 17 percent noted urgent care projects underway or planned within the next three years.
11. Regarding efficiency enhancements, 61 percent of respondents said they upgraded or replaced air handlers and ventilation systems in the last two years or plan to in the next two years.
12. Sixty-five percent of recently completed construction projects ranked just on or under budget as well as on or ahead of schedule.