Healthcare facilities today are being asked to anticipate conditions they cannot fully predict. From global health crises to rapid shifts in care delivery, the environment you operate in continues to demand buildings that do more than meet present-day standards. The new standard is flexibility at scale. Recent patient tower projects, including Memorial Health’s $265 million investment in Savannah, reflect a deliberate response to this reality. Across the country, health systems are applying lessons from recent disruptions to design facilities that stay operational, efficient, and adaptable through years of change.
Spaces must be designed for continuous adaptability
Every project now faces the question of how to prepare for a future with unpredictable patient needs. You see this in the prioritization of acuity-adaptable rooms, where patient care can escalate or de-escalate without moving the patient or reconfiguring essential systems. Floor plans are being organized around standardized room types and vertically aligned infrastructure to reduce renovation impacts and allow departments to flex across specialties as volumes shift. Decentralized support spaces are also a focus, helping your teams respond faster and operate with more efficiency regardless of how clinical priorities evolve.
Design strategies that support this level of adaptability include:
- Standardized room layouts that allow use across multiple levels of care
- Vertical alignment of MEP systems to simplify future changes
- Modular millwork and mobile equipment to reduce reliance on fixed infrastructure
- Decentralized supply and medication storage to support unit-based workflows
- Universal headwalls with full gas, power, and data connections
These decisions align closely with operations. A facility that can shift between care levels without reconstruction lets you respond to demand rather than delay care. Standardized infrastructure also allows facilities staff to troubleshoot systems faster and support a broader range of clinical activities.
Tip: When reviewing room designs, confirm whether utility connections support future upgrades or care-level changes without invasive retrofitting.
Smaller hospitals face different design pressures
Facilities with limited budgets and smaller patient volumes may not be able to replicate the scale or redundancy of large academic towers. However, small and rural hospitals are still incorporating core design strategies that allow them to stay agile. Flexibility, multipurpose space, and modest technology integration can help you extend functionality without increasing your footprint or staff burden.
Effective design approaches for smaller facilities include:
- Patient rooms with swing capability between med-surg and step-down care
- Combined procedural suites that support surgery, endoscopy, and emergency use
- Compact utility cores that centralize critical systems for ease of maintenance
- Flexible public areas designed to support waiting, education, or surge care
- Cloud-based building systems that reduce on-site infrastructure and IT load
Smaller hospitals may also benefit from pre-engineered modular components that can be phased in as funding allows. For example, a modest imaging suite today can be built with the conduit and mechanical backbone for future CT or MRI installation. Likewise, smaller-scale RTLS systems can track critical assets without requiring a full-building overhaul.
The emphasis is on designing once, but planning for multiple futures. If your team can identify the systems most likely to evolve, you can preserve access and alignment from the beginning, which avoids expensive corrections later. Even in facilities under 100,000 square feet, a strong design framework can support decades of adaptation.
Tip: Focus early design discussions on three systems most likely to evolve, power, oxygen, and data, and ensure clear access routes are built in.
Future-ready hospitals need embedded surge capacity
The pandemic brought permanent attention to the limits of conventional design. Surge-ready infrastructure is now a requirement, not a contingency. Rooms, systems, and public spaces are being designed with dual uses in mind. You may not need overflow capacity every day, but when it is needed, the space must be immediately functional.
Core features that enable surge response include:
- Patient rooms wired and piped for intensive care, even when used for med-surg
- Oversized air handling units with flexibility for isolation zones
- Multi-use public areas that convert to temporary triage or recovery space
- Structural planning for vertical expansion or lateral buildouts
- Medical gas and electrical systems designed for sustained high-acuity use
- Docking areas and parking decks that can serve mobile units or disaster staging
Facilities like the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU incorporated these considerations early in their tower project. Others, including Memorial Health, are expanding capacity without sacrificing daily operational flow. These design moves allow you to maintain control during peak events instead of relying on temporary workarounds.
Tip: During design reviews, verify how each space can convert within 24 hours without structural changes or specialized labor.
Technology must be supported by infrastructure that allows evolution
Medical technology changes too frequently for static infrastructure to keep pace. Many recent towers are being constructed with future change in mind. These facilities are structured to absorb technology upgrades without disruption to operations or patient care.
Key components of technology-ready infrastructure include:
- Interstitial space in ceilings and walls for flexible wiring and system routing
- Modular electrical and data pathways that support device upgrades
- Wireless systems robust enough for telemetry, RTLS, and remote diagnostics
- Integration-ready building management systems with open protocols
- Room-based digital controls for lighting, temperature, and filtration
- Cloud-friendly server rooms and localized edge computing enclosures
At Memorial Health, designers incorporated smart room infrastructure and scalable networking from the start. In academic centers, these requirements expand further to support simulation training, research equipment, and tele-education. For you, these elements simplify future technology rollouts and reduce the risk of costly retrofits.
Tip: Confirm that each patient room has capacity for at least two future data drops and one power upgrade before walls are closed.
Delivery models are shifting to match complexity and speed
Construction methods have also evolved. Many patient tower projects now use collaborative delivery models that keep facilities leaders involved early. Integrated project delivery (IPD) and design-build frameworks align design and construction timelines while making space for continuous stakeholder input.
Advantages of these models from a facilities perspective include:
- Early coordination on serviceability, access points, and maintainable systems
- Fewer field changes due to misaligned design assumptions
- More accurate utility routing and system sizing
- Ability to validate operations requirements before construction begins
- Real-time feedback on constructability and phasing impacts
The Children’s Hospital of Richmond adopted a collaborative delivery method that allowed clinical, facilities, and construction teams to align from the start. This led to better integration between care delivery and building operations, reducing pressure on facilities staff post-occupancy.
Tip: Assign a facilities representative to every coordination meeting involving layout, utilities, and long-term maintenance concerns.
Operational and environmental resilience must be planned from the start
Long-term sustainability goes beyond energy efficiency. It includes maintaining system integrity during crises, reducing life-cycle costs, and designing spaces your teams can reliably support. Sustainability strategies are now expected to contribute to resilience and operational continuity.
Typical features supporting these outcomes include:
- Dual-feed or on-site generation to preserve uptime during outages
- Durable finishes and consistent material selections to reduce repairs
- Automated systems for lighting, HVAC, and water usage monitoring
- Efficient envelope design for improved thermal regulation and energy savings
- Zoning strategies for containment and infection control
- Secure, redundant IT networks for clinical systems and building automation
These features were all part of the planning criteria described in recent healthcare design reports. For facilities teams, they translate to smoother operations, fewer unplanned outages, and buildings that remain functional even when external systems fail.
Sources
Five Healthcare Spaces that Reimagine Patient-Centered Design
How Design-Build is Shaping the Future of Healthcare Construction (Part 2)
Memorial Health to build new $265 million patient care tower
Navigating the Complexities of Patient Tower Projects in Academic Health Systems
New Patient Tower Signals Hope for Richmond Children and Families
