As populations and life expectancies increase, spending on healthcare follows. Standing at only 5 percent of GDP, healthcare spending on the mainland has been relatively low per capita as a ratio of GDP, compared to Western countries, but investment in health has almost doubled over the past six years and is expected to continue growing by double-digit rates for years to come.

The large rise in the elderly population is expected to affect health spending. By 2020, nearly 12 percent of the population is predicted to be older than 65. This defines the mainland as having an “aging population”, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

If hospitals on the mainland are to deliver the very best in healthcare outcomes for their patients, there are several areas that need to be considered. Using the experience from the projects we work on across the world, EC Harris has identified the following best practices that lead to better management of healthcare facilities.

Demand management and forecasting

In many cases, hospitals focus on the early part of the journey when the design is being considered. This short-termism routinely leads to costly and disruptive changes later in the process, particularly after the facility was built. In turn, this then causes delays in the ability to fully use the hospital.

With populations growing, forecasting the needs of these growing populations is crucial to hospital building and management.

When planning for medical care facility needs, developers need to include in their consideration the age profile of its population, specialty needs, the incidence of clinical disease, the number and services of collaborating sites within the area. This planning work can avoid high costs resulting from the changes after a medical facility has been built.

Planning and strategy

It is important to know in advance how busy a hospital will be and thus what size and type of building is required. It is normal on the mainland for patients not to visit a primary care physician but to go directly to hospital, even for the most minor illness. This means hospital emergency waiting rooms routinely clog up with 2,000 patients a week waiting for treatment — for ailments from broken bones to common colds.

When projects are poorly managed and planned, it invariably leads to buildings that don’t meet the needs of medical staff who then complain and want areas to be redesigned. Involving clinical staff, medical professionals or experienced consultants during planning avoids this issue.

Asset efficiency

With the costs of hospital projects worldwide ranging from $2,642 and $7,482 a square meter and for clinics between $1,200 and $4,000 a square meter**, there are many issues to overcome in appraising the project costs/space of similar hospitals.

While part of the difference in cost comes down to labor, location or specialty-based costs, much of the difference can be explained by other factors and cultural influence, with factors including national government/statutory standards, town planning and engineering resilience, accreditation, strategy around procurement of equipment, and quality of external and internal environment.

Conclusion

The key to achieving the best results for building and managing mainland’s healthcare facilities is to blend the best ideas, developing the right system and approach for each hospital to meet the health needs of the community and get a “buy in” from clinical staff as to how healthcare will be delivered. Evidence from other countries has shown the benefit that can be achieved through international best practices.

**Derived from our sample of 18 worldwide schemes in 11 countries.

The author is head of health sector at EC Harris.