Hospital facilities teams support just about every other department of the hospital as their internal customers, because just about all teams need access to various facilities.
However, facilities’ needs can vary quite widely among different departments.
For example, hospital admissions would usually have different facilities needs than the ER. An ER counts on facilities to provide its structure, generator power, battery backup power, plumbing, and HVAC, among other areas.
Transportation Between Campuses
Another area that sometimes involves facilities, but many times is the hospital’s own emergency services department, which is often overlooked, is interfacility transport. This is the hospital-owned internal ambulance service that handles driving between campuses.
As an emerging trend impacting facilities teams, there’s a shift away from huge hospitals when real estate is at a premium. In this model, a large hospital in a region is constructed with freestanding ER’s or urgent care centers built closer to where patients live and work.
These local satellite locations generally don’t perform elective surgery, operate more like a small community hospital, and offer a faster in/out experience for patients.
How do your hospital’s facilities’ needs vary among different departments? Share your thoughts in the section for comments below.
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