In healthcare facility planning, staying ahead of policy shifts, technological advances, evolving models of care and new back-of-house service offerings is paramount for supporting improved consumer outcomes while managing impacts to costs, resources, and services. For architects and project managers involved in healthcare facility design and delivery, it is crucial to adopt effective strategies to successfully navigate these complexities.
1. Stay Informed: Keeping abreast of policy and technological changes is essential for informed decision-making. By staying connected to State and industry changes, policy and service model developments, architects and project managers can anticipate challenges and opportunities to improve both the process and outcomes of facility planning.
2. Embrace True Co-Design: Often touted, rarely done well, effective co-design is a powerful tool against variations, unintended consequences, and risks to achieving intended benefits. Co-design provides not just a pathway and process for managing the change requirements within design, but also a pathway to better stakeholder engagement.
3. Employ Change Management: Consultation and adaptation are key components of successful project delivery. By integrating change management principles early in the planning stages, architects and project managers can address potential obstacles and proactively manage project complexities as they arise. Our team at BFK & Associates, with over 40 years of combined experience in major projects, understands the need for flexible and robust change management strategies to navigate the dynamic landscape of healthcare facility planning.
4. Adopt Systems Thinking: While tempting to focus in one area, one service, one change (and often the very way in which design meetings are structured!), it is the functional relationships between areas, between the services, and between individual changes that are often overlooked, leading to unintended and unforeseen outcomes. By adopting a holistic approach to facility planning, architects and project managers can identify potential bottlenecks and streamline processes to enhance overall efficiency and effectiveness.
As healthcare planners, BFK & Associates have many real-world experiences where the changes to service models within healthcare necessitated adjustments to spatial allowances, traffic flow, storage requirements, and more. Whilst the Australasian Health Facility Guidelines are an important part of the design process, integrating the above four insights in healthcare facility planning and design can help you to achieve truly integrated outcomes.
At BFK & Associates, we are an independent consulting firm dedicated to leveraging our specialist knowledge to achieve integrated results in healthcare facility planning. With a deep understanding of the needs and drivers of healthcare change for consumers and clinicians alike, we utilise the above principles and more to integrate the appropriate adaptations and innovations early in the planning process to reduce time and cost in design.