The results of the 2013 hospital construction survey conducted annually by Health Facilities Management (HFM) magazine and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) were released this month with similar observations to last year.
While the uncertainty surrounding the enactment of the Affordable Care Act has been largely lifted, healthcare organizations continue to take a wait-and-see approach to how the new mandates (and a still struggling economy) will affect them. This means putting off larger projects like new or replacement hospital construction in favor of focusing on renovations, technology upgrades and outpatient or ambulatory facilities.
HFM reports “favoring renovations over replacement or expansion isn't just a matter of spending fewer dollars. Hospitals that need to renovate because of increased technology, code compliance or the need for a better electrical/mechanical infrastructure simply can't put those construction programs off indefinitely.”
But despite the hold on expansion plans, there doesn’t seem to be a construction bust. According to HFM, the percentage of hospital capital budgets allocated to construction projects in 2013 is up over similar budgeted numbers a year ago.
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