This article was originally published on August 4, 2026, and can be found on the ACHE-WI website here.
Healthcare is a tough business. Margins are tight, labor costs are high, reimbursement is uncertain, and competition for patients and providers remains intense.
Managing all these factors (and more!), many organizations delay infrastructure upgrades, maintenance projects, and smaller capital improvements — sometimes to manage short-term costs, and sometimes because larger facility projects may be on the horizon. While understandable, the cost of waiting often compounds quickly.
Strategic facility planning is about the patient, not the building.
Deferring small facility investments today frequently leads to larger, more disruptive, and more expensive failures tomorrow. Even if a “bigger fix” seems just around the corner, the highly complex nature of healthcare spaces and the dramatic impact of down time in infrastructure makes reliability essential to patient care.
Aging HVAC systems can compromise infection prevention and environmental controls. Electrical failures can disrupt critical equipment and operations. Plumbing issues, water intrusion, or failing life safety systems create risks for patients — as well as for staff and visitors.
Unlike other industries, facility failures in healthcare can immediately affect care delivery. Procedures may be delayed, patient rooms closed, or departments temporarily disrupted. With rigorous regulatory expectations around life safety, ventilation, emergency preparedness, and environmental conditions, the facilities themselves truly are direct patient care concerns. Effective planning leads to crisis avoidance and avoids crisis management!
It’s about provider retention, not the building.
Healthcare organizations are competing aggressively for physicians, nurses, and clinical staff. The physical environment increasingly influences where providers choose to work — and whether they stay.
Recurring maintenance problems, outdated clinical spaces, unreliable temperature control, and operational disruptions create frustration for already strained care teams. Providers want environments where they can deliver care efficiently and confidently. Modern, reliable facilities support morale, workflow, and retention.
In today’s labor market, the condition of the physical environment has become part of the workplace value proposition. And as providers are learning more innovative and advanced ways to deliver care, they – and their patients – need facilities that can keep up.
It’s about best ROI on any building investment.
Deferred maintenance rarely saves money long term. Small issues become larger capital problems. Emergency repairs cost more than planned replacements. Operational disruptions reduce throughput, interrupt revenue, and create unbudgeted expenses.
Healthcare organizations also face indirect costs:
- Lost revenue from disrupted operations
- Increased energy and maintenance costs
- Compliance-related remediation
- Higher operational risk
- Damage to patient confidence and reputation
The question is not whether organizations should invest in short-term needs or long-term initiatives. Healthcare systems need both, and strategic guidance is essential to balancing immediate operational priorities with long-term capital planning.
It’s about strategic facility advice, not just the construction.
Most healthcare leaders already know their buildings have vulnerabilities. The challenge is determining what to prioritize, when to act, and how to align limited capital with operational risk. These decisions also should be considered against long-term campus and facility-wide maintenance and replacement plans.
Strategic facility guidance helps organizations move from reactive decision-making to proactive planning. The key is relationship-based connection and discussion that provides objective facility assessments, capital planning guidance, and risk-based prioritization that help leadership teams make smarter long-term decisions.
In today’s healthcare environment, facility strategy is inseparable from organizational strategy. Organizations that proactively address infrastructure challenges position themselves to operate more safely, efficiently, and competitively. Strategic planning conversations today can help avoid costly disruptions tomorrow.
Our healthcare team has the expert guidance needed to strategically plan for the future. Connect with us if you have any questions — we are passionate about helping healthcare leaders align their mission with their facilities and setting patients and staff up for success.
– Tony Sullivan, Director of Project Management – Healthcare
We are joining in the celebration of dedicated healthcare staff this week!
During National Hospital Week, we at Findorff would like to recognize and honor the ongoing efforts and work of our dedicated hospital staff and caregivers, as well as all the workers that keep our healthcare system strong during demanding times. Whether it be a minor renovation or the construction of a new, state-of-the-art medical facility, we send the best of the best, healthcare-certified team members to take on these projects.
But our efforts are empty without close collaboration with frontline staff to ensure that our projects go above and beyond their research and care needs. Every day we are inspired by the skill and dignity of every staff member who provides significant services to every person who walks through their doors. Your efforts do not go unnoticed or unappreciated!
Hard work and compassion are always at the forefront when it comes to our healthcare projects, with every facility designed and built in a way that we could picture ourselves and our loved ones getting top-tier care within them. Atmosphere holds power in the reassurance we need in a medical emergency, so Findorff strives to create settings of comfort and peace for all patients and staff.
Our business is giving you the space to do yours, and together, we create facilities that deliver top-tier care to those in need.To learn more about Findorff’s hospital work, check out our Healthcare Experience. For information to work with Findorff on healthcare opportunities, please reach out to Jeff Eckstein, AIA.
Every year, in late October, it is our honor to recognize Health Care Facilities and Engineering Week. As we think of the American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE)’s theme, “Engineered to make a difference,” we recognize what a tremendous difference health care facility professionals have made in the last year and a half. Though providing exceptional care is not a new concept for them, their contributions have been critical in a time like no other.
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, facilities teams made sure all COVID-related measures and the buildings that support them were at the ready. Now, as we move through the continued impacts of the virus and its variants, their role is still significant. Ensuring that the facilities can operate at full capacity, dealing with increased patient volume, and striving to meet the revenue expectations needed to recover from COVID’s effect have been of utmost importance. Even under normal circumstances, providing for the proper environment of care is hard work. But for health care facility teams, rising to the occasion is the norm, no matter what the climate.
Working side by side with health care facility personnel inspires us every day to create quality healing environments. To learn more and how we can support your health care facility needs, please contact Findorff’s Business Development and Health Care Consultant Jeff Eckstein, AIA.
As we celebrate Healthcare Facilities and Engineering Week and reflect on the 2020 theme “Heroes of Health Care Facilities,” the effects of COVID-19 in our communities is at the forefront.
When the pandemic hit with full force last spring, it was clear that facilities teams would have a huge role in keeping patients (and the people who care for them) safe. Pretty quickly responsibilities increased from “the usual” to include pandemic-specific requirements. Many of you sprang into action adjusting pressure differentials that created negative pressure rooms or units, readying patients’ room or wings that were long-vacant, and securing additional N95 masks and other needed PPE. You were ready to meet the challenges each day – just like the frontline workers directly caring for patients.Your facilities teams also made sure emergency power, medical gases, and other critical utilities were ready during these crucial times. And because the pandemic threw capital and expense budgets off course, you addressed financial and staffing issues with hospital leadership as to not sacrifice care.
Providing for the proper environment of care is tough under normal operating conditions. Most of 2020 has been far from that and yet you and your teams, Heroes of Health Care Facilities, rose to ever-changing challenges in the face of COVID-19. After eight months you are still fighting this horrible virus every day. We know you wear masks daily, but this year you also deserve capes.
Tony Sullivan, Project Executive – Healthcare
This week we are honoring our healthcare heroes during National Hospital Week. On behalf of all us at Findorff, I would like to express sincere gratitude to those healthcare workers who go above and beyond to care for our communities during such a challenging time. Our appreciation for these workers extends far beyond just this week of recognition. As Findorff’s healthcare division leader, I see every day how our business works together with the frontline hospital staff toward a common goal of providing the best patient care possible.To support these healthcare workers, Findorff is working on several projects specifically designed for keeping staff safe during this pandemic. We are working on setting up a remote testing facility for the staff of a local healthcare site as well as adjustments to multiple clinics to make the work environment safer for the essential workers.
Most of our work with healthcare is in occupied settings where patient care is still going on. In the past two years over 85% of our healthcare projects have been completed in these occupied spaces. Because of these conditions, Findorff must coordinate closely with frontline staff (i.e. doctors, nurses, administrators etc.) to ensure that we are allowing them the space to continue providing excellent patient care while we work on improving their facilities. We are proud to work alongside such dedicated professionals.
Healthcare is not only a part of my professional life but also a part of my personal life as my mother, sister, and wife are all nurses. I feel honored to work in an industry that is dedicated to making improvements in medical facilities to ensure healthcare workers can do their jobs successfully.
Thank you to the wide range of healthcare workers; your hard work and dedication to public health and safety is what makes you heroes now more than ever.
Blog written by Findorff Superintendent Jeff Benson
Happy National Hospital Week! Along with everyone at Findorff, I honor the healthcare workers who support their communities with hope, healing, and passion for dedicated care. As a Findorff Superintendent, I see firsthand the skill and care in the daily activities of the incredible staff serving healthcare facilities. We honor that effort everyday by our own commitment to quality construction.
People often ask me how construction in the healthcare industry is different. The answer is simple: empathy. Here are some of the things we do at Findorff to keep empathy at the forefront of our work:
- Imagine the patients are our family members checking into the front desk, walking the corridors, or going into surgery. We keep a smile on our face because we never know what someone is going through.
- Collaborate closely with the facilities team and staff to make the environment safe and comfortable for patients and visitors. Specifically, managing air quality, controlling noise levels, and providing adequate signage are very important.
- Be prepared to adapt to the daily operations of a hospital. Plus be accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help ensure a hospital is performing at its best.
It is rewarding to work as a team with our healthcare partners. Together, we put hard work and compassion into the healthcare facilities that have such an impact on communities. Thank you to all the physicians, nurses, therapists, engineers, food service staff, environmental service staff, facilities staff, volunteers, administrators, and many others. You all create healthy and safe facilities that make profound and lasting impacts on all of us.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]– Blog written by Findorff’s Jeff Eckstein, Healthcare Business DevelopmentThis week is ASHE’s National Healthcare Facilities and Engineering Week. During this time, Findorff likes to recognize teams that serve as everyday heroes as they provide, manage, and maintain the healthcare physical environment.Behind the scenes, a lot of work takes place to ensure healthcare facilities are running safely and effectively. From providing electrical service, heating, and cooling, to the management of complex systems serving critical care spaces, these teams do it all. They are experts who regularly problem-solve and make decisions to best support patients and their families, as well as the people who care for them. Their hard work helps to provide the best healthcare outcomes, achieve operational excellence, and foster innovation. We salute those for providing optimal environments for people to get healthy. These people are our heroes.Findorff’s healthcare experts are inspired by such individuals. We understand that healthcare environments are places of healing. This drives everything we do. We are privileged to work side-by-side with the people who provide these critical settings.If you’d like to learn more, make sure to check out Findorff’s healthcare experience.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1532027784860{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1532028074358{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text el_class=”related-portfolio-posts-heading”]
RELATED NEWS
[/vc_column_text][vcex_blog_grid columns=”3″ custom_query=”true” img_size=”full” date=”false” read_more=”false” custom_query_args=”post_type=post&posts_per_page=3&orderby=rand&post_name__in%5B0%5D=national-hospital-week&post_name__in%5B1%5D=helping-build-communities-habitat-for-humanity-frame-up&post_name__in%5B2%5D=women-construction-week” classes=”related-posts”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Blog written by Findorff’s Jeff Eckstein, Business Development Healthcare
In the last few weeks, this country has seen several unfortunate events resulting in tremendous despair. Recent hurricanes lead to significant flooding in Florida and Texas, where many were displaced from their homes. We’ve also experienced heartbreak in Las Vegas with a tragic shooting. At times like these, I’m reminded of the critical role healthcare facilities play in caring for people. Facility management during normal operations is a challenge at best on good days. During emergency circumstances, however, it’s truly an all-in, well-choreographed effort. Whether your facility is a large academic medical center, a community hospital, or critical access hospital, your role is crucial to maintain an environment of care. This is not news to you, regardless of the scale or location of your facility. As you plan for emergencies, you ensure vital systems are ready for that horrible day you hope never comes.
I’ve watched our own healthcare partners prepare for tough times. I’ve watched you learn about and adjust to the new CMS Emergency Preparedness rules that take effect on November 16, 2017. I know when your community needs your care, your facility is ready…like an airliner at the end of the runway waiting for takeoff. Regardless of the emergency, I’m confident you will provide the extraordinary environments that are necessary to serve your community. That said, let’s all take a moment to not only recognize National Healthcare Facilities and Engineering Week, but to also reflect on all you do for your patients, their families, staff, and administrators on good days and bad. It’s truly remarkable.
Blog written by Findorff Senior Advisor Tim Prince, MHA, FACHE
In celebrating National Hospital Week, we at Findorff offer our appreciation and respect for the incredible work that health care professionals do every day in caring for patients. It takes a tremendous amount of knowledge, teamwork, dedication, and commitment for hospital and health care staff to bring their expertise to bear on moments of compassion. Those actions truly make a profound difference in the experience of and impact on patients.
Designing and constructing health care facilities takes a lot of coordination, planning, and technical expertise too. To keep these facilities running smoothly is even more complex. Yet, while hospitals are intricate facilities with complicated systems, they also must be comfortable for patients in times of uncertainty, as well as supportive and efficient for caregivers. And complicating it all is declining reimbursement, increasing regulation demands, advances in technology, and escalating costs. Finding balance among these forces, while also bringing a focus and compassion to patient experience, is an incredible challenge. We hope that our small part in creating effective environments give all staff the foundational support they need: whether it is never giving a second thought to the fact that the lighting works as needed, having a sound, sustainable infrastructure that can be effectively maintained, appreciating the craftsmanship in the clinical care spaces, or getting that extra boost from a comforting space of respite.
Every day, we apply our values of character, community, and craftsmanship to help create caring environments. And while we respect the great work that goes on inside those facilities every day, during hospital week we take one moment to specifically honor and thank all our past, current and future clients for what you do. To all our clients, thank you for the opportunity to help you help others.
Blog written by Findorff’s Jeff Eckstein, Business Development Healthcare
My recent schedule had me crisscrossing the upper Midwest, and checking out the beautiful landscapes as I drove past large academic medical centers, community hospitals and critical access hospitals. I spent some time thinking about the challenges in facility management in healthcare. None of these challenges are new to you, because, regardless of the scale or location of the facility, you are responsible for providing the environment of care from the beginning of life to life’s end – and all the healthcare events that take place in between.
Day in and day out, you face issues around staffing, doing more with less and an ever increasing level of new regulations – from the new NFPA 101, 99 and their reference standards to the upcoming new Wisconsin Hospital Code. And it doesn’t end there, as reimbursements continue to decline, government-provided insurance programs become more uncertain and the care model transition from sick care to well care is unclear at best.
Even with these challenges, I’m confident you will be a part of maintaining the extraordinary environments that help provide exceptional care in your community. Take a moment this week to reflect on all you do for your patients, care givers, staff and administrators. It’s truly inspirational.