By Dan Hounsell

Healthcare facilities managers have known for more than a year that the COVID-19 pandemic changed nearly everything about their organizations’ buildings and activities. Only now, though, is it possible to get a clearer picture of the size of the impact. Take construction as an example. 

From day one, facilities focused on critical issues such as upgrading ventilation, creating isolation rooms, expanding emergency departments and building temporary structures to handle patient overflow. But because hospitals had to redirect resources to COVID-19-related issues, many facilities had to put the brakes on other construction projects while they reassessed the situation.

In fact, the vast majority of hospital construction projects were impacted in some way by the pandemic, according to the 2021 Hospital Construction Survey by Health Facilities Management, which included responses from more than 300 facilities professionals at hospitals across the country.

The survey showed that 76 percent of respondents have delayed one or more construction projects due to COVID-19, while 29 percent have canceled at least one project altogether. For projects started before the pandemic, renovation was overwhelmingly the main project delayed, canceled or fast-tracked.