Mistakes to Avoid in Healthcare Construction
Every step taken during Healthcare Construction is a step closer to success or further from success. Whether you are undertaking Dental Construction, Medical Construction, Veterinary Construction or other Healthcare Construction, it is critical to ensure each step is planned to precision. Forethought and attention to detail is a skill that cannot be underestimated – let’s therefore, look at some of the critical steps and how to best navigate them to avoid costly medical construction mistakes and clinic renovation pitfalls.
Insufficient Budget
Usually, your first point of call would be with your financial advisor/accountant. Before you even think about any project, ensure you have sufficient budget. Where are the funds coming from? Private savings, Private Investors, Line of Finance? What is the cost and return on investment? Alone, to obtain solution to these two questions can cost thousands even before the project starts.
Solution: Ensure you partner with an experienced financial advisor who can accurately create a project budget. Also, ensure you have sufficient budget to invest into financial spreadsheets before the project commences. Ensure your budget looks at capital investments, cash flows, return on investments etc. These budgets, if accurate from a financial standpoint, will dictate whether the project will go ahead or not.
Inexperienced Partners
One thing we know about successful construction projects is to have the right stakeholders in place to ensure a wide range of knowledge is consulted. Not one person or group knows how to run a construction project from start to finish getting everything correct. Using inexperienced Builders or Project Managers is a recipe for disaster. Fit-out errors and medical construction mistakes can cause a project to fail. Ensuring the project adheres to all legal requirements to pass the Certificate of Occupancy first time is very important to adhering to the budget. Making errors at the design phase can cost huge amounts and can be the downfall of the project before it even starts.
Solution: Ensure you involve qualified stakeholders from the start. Ensure your Medical Builders and Project Management Team have years of medical experience under their belt. Experienced Medical Construction builders understand compliance issues and will ensure the project is built satisfying all legal requirements to ensure the Certificate of Occupancy is granted first time.
Design Mishaps
The design phase is critical to the success of the project. Fit-out errors at the design phase are errors that could be avoided. Too many times investors will use a design team that have never had medical construction experience previously. They will design a lavish array of beautiful architecture without due thought for the practical design. Often calling up materials inappropriate for medical environments and will more often than not design a project well over budget.
Solution: Consider engaging a design and construction builder. These specialist builders have a design team experienced in designing medical environments to a client’s budget. Then the experienced construction team takes over to build the project to budget. These design and construction specialists understand the complexities of medical environments.
Inflexible Design
Medical design is changing rapidly. We have seen over the last 40 years, the progression of repurposing domestic houses into medical centers… transitioning to the mega clinic which offers a wide range of medical specialists… remote health services and open plan medical facilities. Having an outdated medical design can be a factor in patient attrition. Patients these days are more educated and demand up-to-date technology.
Solution: Future proof your medical design. Ensure you partner with a design team that has skills to plan for future medical trends. Ensure the construction project has sufficient space to expand or repurpose rooms to suit emerging medical requirements.
The Technology Challenge
The forever-changing technology environment can be difficult to comprehend. Even more challenging is understanding how to keep up with the changes. Misjudging future trends can be costly. Patients will find themselves navigating to clinics offering up-to-date equipment. Clinic renovation pitfalls involving out-of-date technology can lead to expensive refits and investments at a later date.
Solution: Do your research. Check overseas technology trends. Understand where technology is heading in your medical field. Engage specialists to help identify technology and medical equipment that is critical to show patients that you care about their health.
Not Allowing for the Unforeseen
Unforeseen issues can cause high blood pressure and anxiety. Unforeseen issues can be costly and can delay a project’s completion date. In every project, there will always be challenges. What you would like to avoid are any dental construction issues, veterinary clinic construction errors, or medical construction delays that could cost time and money. Time delays and variations can be costly and unfortunately, the investor/s usually bears the cost.
Solution: Be realistic. Roadblocks, variations, problems, and challenges will occur in every job. When this happens, you will be happy that your budget had allowance for time delays and other mishaps. Don’t sweat the small stuff and if you have engaged the correct builder, they will lead from the front finding solutions.
In the end, the success of your project lies in your hands. Have you considered the list of medical construction mistakes? Have you engaged experienced medical builders, completed your research, and ensured your budget is sufficient to complete the project to plan? Do you understand the future technology challenge? Have you allowed for roadblocks?
All these questions will require an answer to ensure that you avoid a few construction pitfalls and mistakes.
Here at Clinics by Design, we would love to chat with you about your Medical Construction, Dental Construction, or Veterinary Construction. Call us today.
