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Survey Finds Location And Wait Time Top Factors In Patient Experience

Proximity to a healthcare facility may be a bigger factor than ever in where patients choose to seek care, according to a recent survey by JLL, a real estate and investment management firm.

In the poll, 83 percent of patients stated they would prefer to be near their care rather than driving farther to a new or renovated facility. Only 36 percent of survey participants said they checked reviews prior to an appointment.

The firm also looked at what patients notice most during a visit, with cleanliness, safety, accessible parking, and staffing as top factors that patients noted as contributing to a positive experience on their last visits. Those unhappy with their last experience pointed to lengthy wait times (34 percent) and inadequate staffing (28 percent) as the biggest issues, while unsafe and dirty/unsanitary conditions were low on patients’ issues with a poor experience.

“It’s clear that facilities need to focus on cleanliness and safety while also enhancing the patient experience through proper staffing to improve efficiency,” Richard Taylor, divisional president, JLL Healthcare Solutions, a division of JLL, said in a release on the report. “If a patient is frustrated with the process of gaining access to care, they are unlikely to even notice the other qualities of the facility.”

 

Source: healthcare design

 

The Pandemic’s Impact On Health Care Design: Smaller, Flexible Spaces With Great Adaptability

The pandemic rocked U.S. health care facilities in 2020, leaving them with falling revenue from moneymaking surgeries and ordinary care as physicians and nurses shifted their attention toward patients infected with the coronavirus.

But the real change will come three to four years from now, when the impact of new designs implemented on existing and new healthcare facilities are deployed based on what architects and physicians have learned over the past nine months.

“Health care clients are already shifting their focus and asking for smaller footprints and more space flexibility along with additional isolated, negative air pressure rooms,” said Architect and EYP principal Miranda Morgan, while speaking at Bisnow‘s ‘The Future of DFW Healthcare’ webinar. “The smaller footprints are just more efficient and lean. We are still providing everything that is needed, and we are still doing big huge patient towers. But instead of big luxury, patient rooms, clients are asking us to be closer to code and to get what you need in that space and provide the patient with a good experience, but don’t go overboard.”

A large focus of future design will be on keeping healthy and sick patients separate rather than feeding everyone through the same access points and maneuvering the same hallways. Luxurious common areas have lost some favor as health care systems shift toward making sure more rooms are available to isolate emergency care and hospital inpatients while also better managing various points of access to segregate healthy and sick populations on-site.

“We are examining the way patients flow through the facilities,” said Dwain ThieleUT Southwestern Medical Centersenior associate dean. “Some of the most challenging are imaging facilities or places that previously did not have a large amount of space, hallways or waiting rooms. It is something we will be looking at in the future.”

“What we have seen through the pandemic from a needs standpoint is more access points for people to be seen and to have access whether through telehealth or smaller, faster clinics where people can get in and out,” Transwestern National Managing Director of Healthcare John Huff said. “I guess we realize we don’t all want to sit in a huge long waiting room for an hour.”

In the future, waiting rooms very well could be a thing of the past, with that square footage allocated to more isolated treatment rooms, health care experts said.

“Other trends here to stay include the ongoing push for more outpatient care centers and ambulatory facilities that can take care of non-life-threatening illnesses while hospitals are hit with pandemics,” Huff said.

“Technology also will play a significant role in reshaping the future of health care, with telemedicine, or remote health care visits, allowing hospitals to keep healthier patients away from pandemic-stricken areas,Methodist Health System Chief Operating Officer Pamela Stoyanoffsaid. “I would say prior to COVID, we probably saw about 1% of visits in the outpatient setting with telehealth. In April and May, when we saw the first surge, we were probably up to 80% to 90% of our visits. When some of the restrictions lifted, telehealth usage dropped back down to 15%, but it’s expected to have a place in the future of health care services. It is now a massive part of what we do, and it is here to stay.”

 

Source: Bisnow

An Overview Of The Medical Office Market

The average asking rent for medical offices reached the highest level on record in the second quarter of 2018, rising 1.4 percent year-over-year to $22.90 per sq. ft., according to a late December report from CBRE.

The firm pointed to tight market conditions and the completion of new, high-quality space as reasons for the continued rent increases.

“Rents increased in two-thirds of the markets tracked by CBRE and grew fastest in some of the markets with the lowest vacancy rates, including Nashville, Manhattan, Louisville, Seattle, and Indianapolis,” Andrea Cross, Americas head of office research, CBRE, said in a statement.

Another factor is that health systems are increasingly using lower-cost outpatient centers. These facilities enable health systems to provide services closer to where patients live. According to CBRE, the total number of outpatient centers grew by more than 50 percent to approximately 41,000 from 2005 to 2016. In addition, outpatient center employment has more than doubled since 2003, and grew 3.5 percent year-over-year in October 2018, compared with 2 percent annual growth in overall healthcare employment.

“Healthcare systems are increasingly catering to patients as consumers—rather than simply users—of healthcare services,” Mark Lamp, executive managing director, healthcare, CBRE, said in a statement. “They are creating outpatient facilities that provide a more ‘hotel-like’ experience—and at a lower cost than the more expensive hospital services—with technology-enabled check-in, abundant natural light and incorporated outdoor spaces, and patient care concierges trained to support guests with any needs.”

On the development front, CBRE‘s report concluded that medical office development strongly correlates with population growth, with Phoenix, Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Atlanta among the top markets for total completions from the third quarter of 2017 to the second quarter of 2018, along with Minneapolis/St. Paul, a leading healthcare cluster. Houston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Atlanta, Chicago, the Inland Empire, Kansas City and Boston rank among the top markets for square footage under construction.

Click here to view NREI’s ‘An Overview Of The Medical Office Market Slideshow’. This gallery takes a look at the fundamentals in the top 30 markets ranked by vacancy rates as of the second quarter of 2018, but also includes stats on net absorption, asking rents and the amount of space under construction in each market.

 

Source: NREI