As new competition emerges—from retail care, to telehealth, to Amazon—planners must respond swiftly and expand their organizations' reach of services. To accommodate this fast-paced growth, many organizations try to get a request for proposal (RFP) out as quickly as possible and accelerate proposal and construction timelines. But chances are, you may still feel like your facility planning process doesn't keep pace with new competition, whether that's because your architects aren't delivering the designs you want, the fees are too much, or the process is taking too long as firms go back to the drawing board.
To identify opportunities to improve the RFP process, we surveyed provider organizations and facility firms and identified three key opportunities for improvement:
Construction projects take several years, and it's difficult to predict what your organization will need in the future. To maintain flexibility, some organizations prefer to build first, and then make decisions about which services to include. Others, seeking to engage stakeholders, solicit many opinions but don't choose among them until the building is nearly complete. However, "build first, decide later" typically results in costly modifications and delays down the line. Before the RFP even goes out, you should clearly define a facility's purpose: What service lines will it include? What population will it serve? How big should it be?
To avoid this pitfall, invite key internal stakeholders to a multidisciplinary steering committee responsible for facility planning, such as Gwinnett Medical Center's implementation teams. In this model, a diverse set of stakeholders from across the organization discusses and agrees on project needs. The team meets regularly to ensure everything is running smoothly and regroups following the construction process to evaluate the team and processes.
The idea of a committee may seem obvious, but the key differentiator in Gwinnett's process is just how diverse their stakeholder pool is. They're not just pulling in facilities directors and COOs—they're including environmental services, operations, marketing, IT, and more. By improving internal communication and gaining multi-stakeholder buy-in, Gwinnett avoids costly last-minute construction fixes and is better able to communicate a unified vision to architecture and design firms.
Guiding questions to streamline facility planning:
In conversations with our facility planning members, we heard that many organizations expect top-notch RFP submissions in anywhere from 72 hours to two weeks. This isn't enough time for architects to prepare their best work, which means you're losing out on high-quality designs.
Aim for three-to-four weeks to get the most out of your architects.
Guiding questions to streamline facility planning
Once you have the submissions, it can be challenging to choose a winner. What should you prioritize? Who gets to decide? Does everyone have to agree?
Define your decision criteria, participants, and process in detail—before you issue the RFP.
Another option, which can be used in tandem with a scorecard, is to choose solely based on value—meaning the efficiency of the design and how well it aligns with the organization's vision. Some provider organizations ask facility firms to submit everything but the fee. After choosing a submission, the organization can then discuss fees with the winning firm and will move on to the next firm if those discussions don't pan out.
Guiding questions to streamline facility planning
Create your free account to access 2 resources each month, including the latest research and webinars.
You have 2 free members-only resources remaining this month remaining this month.
1 free members-only resources remaining this month
1 free members-only resources remaining this month
You've reached your limit of free monthly insights
Never miss out on the latest innovative health care content tailored to you.
You've reached your limit of free monthly insights