Having a deep understanding of the business of healthcare is essential to providing quality service, and to being a valued partner to our clients. How can we, as consultants, architects, data analysts, etc., customize our service scope and optimize the product of our efforts to best help the administrators, clinicians and facilities managers at US health systems succeed in the new healthcare economy without this understanding? In this era of data-based decision modelling, we need to focus our efforts on gathering and synthesizing the most relevant data, and then to contextualize that data with broader market trends and influences, ultimately enabling teams to gain valuable and actionable insight.
When it comes to real estate, we’ve all heard, and have pro
bably used the phrase: Location, Location, Location. It is widely regarded as the primary driver for value in real estate, and what is really interesting is the question, “how does location determine value?” Within a healthcare organization, the answer to this question is different depending upon the organizational team or department with whom you speak. Unfortunately, departments typically speak different languages, as their perspectives are tied to the data they collect, thus hampering a unified and integrated approach to real estate valuation and optimization.
Our understanding of the business drivers allows us to align the differing goals and perspectives, engage stakeholders and provide the organization with valuable insight. Critical to this alignment is collecting and aggregating data relevant to each of the individual perspectives, and the utilization of harmonization, or linking mechanisms, which highlight existing relationships among each of the different data sources.
Data is the key, if we can create structures to unify the information and allow for the “layering” of multiple data sets, we help bridge organizational silos, maximize the value they realize from all of their existing assets, and assist in the creation of an integrated real estate strategy. I invite you to listen to this podcast, and explore my other posts. Reach out with your thoughts and keep the conversation going.
