Dive Brief:
- To thrive in a shifting environment, healthcare organizations need to embrace patient-centered real estate strategy, a new JLL Corporate Solutions report concludes.
- “Healthcare executives recognize they can’t sit still waiting for healthcare reform and reimbursement models to sort themselves out, Peter Bulgarelli, executive managing director of JLL, said in a statement. “Patient convenience, better outcomes and reduced costs are possible if you set a real estate strategy to deliver the right care in the right places tomorrow.”
- The report, released Monday, focuses on five trends that organizations can use to adapt to changing payment models and achieve financial success.
Dive Insight:
A common industry mantra today is the right care at the right place at the right time. The trend has fueled interest in telemedicine, retail clinics, ambulatory surgery centers and other venues that promise quality care at less than the cost of a hospital or ER visit. It has also led to empty inpatient beds, forcing hospitals to rethink their real estate needs.
As demands for specific services evolve, real estate will need to change as well, the report says. Smart providers are building and buying properties that can be repurposed if needed. They are also bringing outpatient services to off-campus medical clinics, drugstores and other locations closer to where patients live.
In addition, some providers are using data analytics and market savvy insights to consolidate administrative services in low-cost office buildings or leave vacant real estate as a secondary income source while they wait for the right time to build or renovate facilities, according to the report.
Advanced data and insights platforms can steer providers to the right real estate decisions by integrating information about neighborhoods, competition and market trends.
And finally, providers can centralize facility management to reduce risk and ensure consistent processes across the health system, the report says.