by Tony Chen

Now I may be a little biased (I've met 2 of the 3 authors of this article and really respect/like them), but this article in Healthcare Design Magazine is simply the most compelling article I've read on the future of hospital facilities.

A few key take-aways for me:

- We all already know that outpatient care will grow much faster than inpatient care. Certain outpatient services will grow REALLY fast. PET/CT volume will increase 120% in 10 years! A ton of surgical procedures as well as oncology will grow dramatically.

- The 2-day hospital stay will become a mainstay. 2-day discharges will almost triple in 10 years. Should hospitals set up staffing / flow / dedicated units solely for the 2-day patient?

- Healthcare is notoriously complex and extraordinarily interlinked. Nonetheless, some services are completely unrelated. Thus, care facilities must be strategically decentralized and strategically adjacent. This is a gross oversimplication, but it's like the advice you hear about your desk & productivity. Use it everyday? Keep it within arms length. Use it monthly? Put it in a file. Use the same group of things together once a month? Put it all in a box in your drawer.

- Hospitals are typically set up by service lines. Since most service lines are dominated by inpatient care, outpatient care / strategy never gets enough attention. At best, outpatient care developments are uncoordinated. Why not put someone in charge of all OP services for all service lines (like this hospital)?

- Too many hospitals are designing their facilities with growth-limiting oversight and don't even know it. When I read this article, I couldn't help but think about Blokus (the only board game I play now - it's a game about fighting for space). Like many strategy games, every decision you make to put down a piece limits you and/or opens doors for future expansion.

- This article would make my wife really happy. She's been "an inspiration" for me to plan better.

- As they say, begin with the end in mind. The end is made much more clear in this article through all the data, so definitely read up!

Combine this strategic facilities intelligence with the Planetree philosophy, and you start getting at the ideal hospital of the future.