The future of healthcare facilities management: an integrated data-powered approach

(1/31/2025)

As a new year begins, you’re likely shaping your plans for the coming months, assessing what resources and expertise will be required to carry your goals across the finish line in the coming year. For healthcare facility leaders, one thing is certain: The speed and magnitude of change we must navigate in healthcare demands that we manage our environment of care differently. 
 

As a new year begins, you’re likely shaping your plans for the coming months, assessing what resources and expertise will be required to carry your goals across the finish line in the coming year. For healthcare facility leaders, one thing is certain: The speed and magnitude of change we must navigate in healthcare demands that we manage our environment of care differently. 
 
Over the past decade, insights gleaned from hundreds of client healthcare facilities ranging from small clinics to large health systems all point to integrated facilities management (IFM) as the best path toward increased (and sustained) efficiencies, savings, and better healthcare delivery. 
 
To be clear, IFM differs sharply from outdated facilities management approaches in three key aspects: 
(1) moving from reactive to proactive, (2) banishing silos and uniting all disciplines that impact your built environment, and (3) leveraging data to predict the needs of your facilities with a high level of precision, even years in advance

Moving past the break-fix mindset    

Traditionally, healthcare facilities management has been largely reactive, focused on addressing issues as they arise. This break-fix approach isn’t just inefficient; it also leads to unnecessary spending and frequent disruptions to patient care and operations. It also makes it more difficult for facility leaders to keep pace with the changing needs of the organization and the patients it serves. It’s tough enough to keep up with reactive repairs, let alone forecast resource needs months or years down the road. 
 
Maintaining a consistent state of preparedness, lengthening the life of equipment, and minimizing the chance of unexpected capital expenditures is made possible by establishing consistent planning and preventive maintenance. This allows healthcare teams to normalize year-over-year costs and reduce expenses in the long run.

Using a data-driven approach    

A data-driven operational model allows healthcare leaders to assess the condition of their facilities and make informed decisions by pinpointing areas to simplify operations, eliminate redundancies, and preempt future costs. At Medxcel, we work with a team of experts to identify opportunities for internal cost reduction without immediately resorting to capital investment in new infrastructure and technology.
 
After decades in this industry, I’ve learned firsthand that there’s a better way. At Medxcel, we’ve documented higher levels of efficiency, savings, and precise forecasting across hundreds of healthcare facilities. The key? It starts with unifying the many disconnected functions that impact your built environment day-to-day.

Eliminating blind spots and question marks    

Historically, various functions of the built environment have been managed by separate vendors or teams who rarely, if ever, communicate with one another. Meanwhile, each of these functions — whether it’s addressing an office renovation, a damaged roof, a regulatory violation, a gas leak, or an imminent weather disaster — all impact each other, for better or worse. 
 
IFM integrates facilities disciplines that have traditionally been siloed, including:

• Maintenance
• Groundskeeping/landscaping
• Regulatory compliance and survey readiness
• Planning, design, and construction
• Real estate management
• Energy and utility efficiency
• Safety and emergency preparedness/response
• Sustainability initiatives
• Capital planning
• Wayfinding and patient experience

By bringing these elements together under one coordinated strategy, healthcare organizations can supercharge efficiencies, shrink costs, and accelerate organizational goals. An integrated strategy also enables data capture, which makes it possible to accurately forecast your facility, workforce, and spending needs, even years down the road.

The game-changing impact of integrated facilities data    

Having helped healthcare facilities integrate all the services outlined above, we saw an opportunity to also leverage data capture, access, and analysis, so healthcare leaders can have real-time, full-picture visibility into every element affecting their physical environment. This isn’t just about tracking construction projects or maintenance schedules. It’s about creating a comprehensive view that mitigates risks, illuminates gaps and opportunities, and enables precise planning.
 
What excites me the most about this methodology is our ability to provide clients with factual data about everything inside their facility, allowing them to predict capital investments for the next 3-5 years, right down to when specific equipment might need replacement. We then complement individual facility data with insights from hundreds of other healthcare facilities nationwide, for even more accurate benchmarking and forecasts.
 
The results speak for themselves. Through this integrated, data-powered approach, we consistently deliver 10-15% savings in facilities management costs over the life of our contracts. When a healthcare organization seeks our help, we’re able to say: “We can do this for substantially less than you’re spending today, and here’s the strategy we’ll employ to ensure that.” Our integrated approach and healthcare expertise allows us to provide savings to clients while improving their ability to deliver care to patients. In the past three years we helped our partners successfully complete 108 TJC surveys, and our clients experience an average compliance score increase of 16% after installing our facilities maintenance operating system. This is just one example of how we bring together disciplines such as regulatory compliance and facilities management.
 
Beyond data, two other IFM components make those outcomes possible: (1) Consolidated spend and buying power through a vetted supplier network, and (2) labor in-sourcing — that is, bringing skilled workers into client facilities to reduce reliance on costly, external contracts.
 
Looking ahead, the goals you’re working toward are inextricably connected to your built environment. In an era of rising complexity and pressure to boost efficiencies and lower costs, IFM is no longer just an option — it’s a necessity for building and maintaining better healing environments.
 
The future of healthcare facilities management is integrated, data-driven, and proactive. The question isn’t whether to embrace this transition, but how quickly you can implement it to start reaping the benefits for your organization.