Skanska Predicts Hospital Building Boom

According to Andrew Quirk of Skanska USA, the next few years will see more hospital construction — by as much as 10 percent by 2015. Following the major downturn of 2008, Quirk predicted a major “upside for design and construction of health care space” over the next few years.

Skanska USA, a subsidiary of Skanska AB of Stockholm, has a health care portfolio that includes Holland Hospital and Detroit Medical Center. Skanska USA is partnering with Jenkins on a $59 million cardiac facility at the Detroit center. In Midland, Mich., the company will additionally perform a $115 million retrofit of the MidMichigan Medical Center.

Following the November election, Quirk predicted that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will assist hospital construction and expansion. “Some projects will be released in 2013 for sure, probably by the second quarter at least,” Quirk stated.

“[Hospital CEOs] are moving to more of the outpatient model,” Quirk said of executives he has spoken to since the passage of PPACA in early 2010. This move entails alteration of a health care model from a reactive to a proactive method — effectively preventively treating a patient before their condition worsens to the point of hospital admission. Quirk believed the outpatient focus will translate into medical facilities being more all-encompassing.

Quirk stated that medical facilities have been tightening up their belts given the tremendous uncertainty over PPACA since 2010. However, “the momentum is growing to either build outpatient facilities or renovate existing hospital space.” This includes renovating ERs to, as Quirk puts it, “make them more efficient.”

With an expected 30 million-plus people to come under the health care system in the next year, hospitals are making floors more efficient for seeing patients instead of adding new beds to the system, according to Quirk.

Quirk also said that the trend of seeing more private patient rooms in newer hospitals will not abate “until almost every hospital bed in the U.S. is [private].” He stated that the industry accepts the premise that single-patient rooms evoke better care outcome than rooms that are not entirely private or shared with other patients.

“I think it’s also linked to the Affordable Care Act, where you’re responsible for the care outcome,” Quirk added.