By By Dan Hounsell

The numerous storms and other natural disasters that have damaged and destroyed hospitals and other healthcare facilities across Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico in recent years have created hardships and suffering. For managers involved in construction, however, these crises also have created opportunities to create facilities that answer the evolving healthcare needs of their facilities.

Repairing or replacing healthcare facilities to address the current healthcare environment makes sense, according to Medical Construction & Design. Using the rebuilding funds to address today’s consumer-driven healthcare facility needs, including virtual medicine, micro hospitals, ambulatory care and community health centers, will make more sense than just rebuilding what was.

To ensure the success of this updated process, all parties involved need to adopt new approaches and tactics. For example, end users should take part in early decision meetings and avoid change of end users once construction has started. Planning and design missteps caused by wrong or incomplete information because the users didn’t participate from the outset can create costly delays and changes once the errors are discovered.