Provider services and solutions

Strategy and growth: Facility planning

The challenge

Aging baby boomers strain your capacity to deliver acute and chronic care. Medical advances compel you to invest in new diagnostic and treatment technologies. You want to position your organization for growth by offering new diagnostic and treatment technologies, and you need expand your facility to accommodate these changes. But reimbursements—tied to your ability to deliver quality and value—are shrinking. Margins are slim. And, in today’s depressed economy, the flow of capital has dried up to a trickle. As a result, many hospitals are delaying or canceling their expansion plans. Some are deciding to renovate rather than replace their facilities. Some are turning to mergers, acquisitions and divestitures to improve their financial performance. Such transactions can abruptly change a hospital’s facility needs.

Making an informed facility planning decision means carefully analyzing many complex issues. Consider how your existing facility constrains growth. The potential financial return from a new facility versus the cost. Is renovation a more practical choice? Are you making the most efficient use of available space and resources? How will you raise the capital to fund facility changes? How can you justify the need to build replacement facilities to payers, regulators and lenders? A life-cycle cost approach to facility planning can help you answer these questions. It can help you decide how aggressively to pursue your implementation strategies. It can help you develop a strategy for consolidating multiple campuses. It can give you the information you need to challenge the value of investments that become acquisition targets.

How we can help you

• Your facility plan should thoroughly consider your facility needs, the costs of facility changes, and the potential growth opportunities a new or renovated facility can provide.
• We use benchmark data and proven methodologies to take the financial pulse of your entire organization. We can assess your competitive strengths and weaknesses. We can conduct a life-cycle cost analysis of proposed renovations and expansions. We can help you identify and prioritize your capital investments. We can help you plan for new service lines and centers of excellence.
• You need to make sure your new and existing facilities deliver maximum benefit to your organization and to your patients.
• We can help you assess new operating models. We can help orient and train your staff to enhance their productivity. We can help you develop a detailed logistical plan for moving patients, equipment, and supplies into new facilities. We can implement improvements to your operational and financial performance. We can build sound project management and budgeting processes into your facility plan.

Common services include

• Planning for licensing, testing and accrediting inspections of new or renovated facilities
• Benchmarking your services and facilities against those of competitors
• Conducting a facility’s life-cycle cost analysis