Maximizing Value: 5 Key Real Estate Strategies for Healthcare Providers

Healthcare leaders are at the forefront of navigating a rapidly evolving, complex real estate landscape. Decisions aren’t always easy.  

And with the surge in outpatient services and ambulatory care, it is more important than ever to address the factors that impact the success of your real estate choices. 

By optimizing facilities and understanding real estate options, you can identify opportunities for consolidation or repurposing of spaces. This helps reduce your overhead costs and can free up capital to invest in strategic priorities and improve overall service quality.  

To help you make informed decisions that enhance patient care and operational efficiency, here are five key considerations you can make as a healthcare leader when evaluating your next real estate move: 

1. Shift to Outpatient Services 

This shift is nothing new—healthcare systems must acknowledge the growing trend of moving procedures like hip and knee replacements and invasive cardiology treatments from hospitals to outpatient facilities. Three key factors are driving this transition, including: 

• Patient preferences for less invasive settings  
• Financial incentives from payers who are prioritizing lower-cost outpatient care 
• Physician driven factors such as competing specialty groups, recruitment and retention, and real estate investment incentives 

Embracing the shift to outpatient facilities can enhance patient satisfaction and promote more sustainable, cost-effective care delivery. As health systems adapt, it’s crucial to evaluate whether remodeling or expansion can provide the right mix of clinical, diagnostic and ambulatory care spaces—or if a new build is necessary to fully support evolving outpatient needs. 

2. Harness the Power of Healthcare Campus Planning and Proximity 

The location of medical office buildings (MOBs) is crucial. Being adjacent to hospital campuses enhances attractiveness to investors due to consistent demand for tenant space, whether from specialty groups or independent practices. 

Strategic campus planning also significantly influences investor decisions by affecting a property's functionality and appeal. Thoughtful designs improve space usage, accessibility and community atmosphere, ultimately enhancing investment value.  

Additionally, strategic planning promotes sustainable development, lowers long-term costs, attracts environmentally conscious investors, and supports clinician efficiency by minimizing transition time between inpatient and outpatient care.  A well-planned campus fosters potential for growth, innovation and collaboration, making it vital for attracting funding and supporting your mission. 

3. Utilize Capital Market Advisory Services  

As you work to expand facilities, decision-making can slow down because it's difficult to assess different healthcare real estate financing options for various projects. Partnering with capital market advisors can help you manage complex financial issues and funding challenges.  

By consulting capital markets teams earlier in your planning, you can find and use different funding sources, like partnerships with foundations and innovative healthcare financing methods. This strategy helps you allocate resources more effectively and align your financial plans with overall goals. 

4. Building a Customer-Friendly Environment 

Healthcare spaces are evolving beyond traditional clinical environments, embracing a more hospitality-driven approach to enhance efficiency, patient flow and overall experience. Through remodeled and thoughtfully designed spaces, healthcare facilities are creating welcoming atmospheres that prioritize comfort and accessibility, transforming the perception of healthcare from a place solely for treatment to one that fosters well-being.  

As the industry becomes increasingly competitive, investing in modernized spaces allows healthcare providers to differentiate themselves, attract patients and redefine the way care is delivered. This shift is not just about aesthetics—it's about optimizing operations and ensuring that every interaction within the space feels seamless and supportive. 

5. Increase Awareness of Current Demographics 

As the aging baby boomer population increasingly seeks healthcare services, their preference for outpatient environments requires healthcare systems to plan facilities tailored to their needs. 

A recent example is the Jewel & Jim Plumb Heart Center at Mercy Medical Center, where our design team prioritized accessibility and ease of navigation for a multigenerational patient population. Dementia-friendly features—including distinct large-scale graphics at critical decision points and clear signage for entrances and exits—help those with memory loss. Flooring materials like rubber and linoleum, along with contrasting color palettes between floors and walls, further enhance navigability. 

Creating accessible, patient-centered healthcare spaces will be essential as expectations evolve. Equally important is recognizing demographic shifts when planning future facilities. By focusing on dynamic populations—such as younger families and areas with strong incomes and lower crime rates—organizations can pinpoint prime land opportunities. Using heat maps and in-depth market analysis, they can evaluate where demographic trends, economic growth, and competition align to determine optimal locations for expansion. 

Partnering with strategic systems and healthcare real estate experts allows organizations to make informed, data-driven decisions. This proactive approach helps optimize facilities, improve patient access and ensure healthcare infrastructure adapts to changing market demands.