Time is not especially kind to buildings. A brand-new medical office can end up looking outdated and worn out in a matter of years. Tearing the office building down and rebuilding from scratch in the same location could prove to be an infeasible expense unless a new construction is the only viable option.
Remodeling is a more economical alternative to a new medical office construction and it is widely adopted by hospital administrators and independent healthcare professionals running a medical practice. However, without proper planning, budgeting, and careful execution, a medical office remodeling project can still end up becoming a serious drain on your resources.
In this post, we will look at ways to successfully implement a remodeling project for medical buildings. The first step is to decide if it is the right time to remodel your medical office.
The purpose of a remodel project is to solve certain pressing problems. These are some of the common issues in a medical building that can be solved by remodeling:
If your facility suffers from multiple issues listed above, your office is probably in desperate need of remodeling (unless you want to build medical offices elsewhere).
When you plan a remodel or renovation of an existing space, you want to cover as many bases and solve as many pending issues as possible. The best way to take stock is by talking to your colleagues, nurses, diagnosticians, maintenance staff, receptionists, and so on.
Hold honest conversations and seek their input for a future vision of what your new medical office space needs. If possible, you can also seek insights from any regular patients about things that they would like to see added to the renovated office, including in the waiting room or reception area and the exam room.
You should bring in experts to look at the electrical systems, HVAC, building safety and compliance, energy efficiency, etc. This will require the services of certified civil engineers, electrical engineers, HVAC specialists, and other consultants.
You can either bring them in separately or hire a firm of consultants who provide a complete package of audit services. The second option is preferable as knowledge sharing is easier and faster with one firm overseeing it all.
A remodeling project is a good time to shake up things in your medical office. Do a long-term profitability analysis – you may discover that some services are more profitable than others. Some parts of your medical office may even be costing you financially with little to no benefit.
If there are any such loss-making services that can be axed without affecting your core bouquet of services or patient comfort, make a decision now. You may be able to free up vital space for other upgrades in more profitable parts of your business.
A strict, but realistic budget is also essential in the construction process. To get a ballpark estimate, you can ask for free quotes from local contractors. Typically, any remodeling/renovation project would include the following core expenses:
Try to set aside a contingency fund in case of any unplanned delays or cost overruns. In the construction business, do not expect things to always go according to plan. Even with the best contractors, you may face unpredictable hurdles that add to the final cost of the project.
When charting a path towards your primary care or specialist medical office renovation, you should look for the most straightforward, streamlined option in order to save time and money. A design-build delivery method has several advantages over the design-bid-build system here.
In this approach, you hand everything to a single entity – a company that will handle the building audits, architectural design, and the actual construction. The system offers time and cost savings over the alternative – getting designs from one or more firms, inviting bids from contractors, bringing on a project manager, and so on.
Specialization is an integral part of the medical profession. The human body is incredibly complex – a single physician cannot realistically master the treatment of all organs and different systems. The same is also true when it comes to the construction business.
The compliance requirements and building structural needs are different for retail, education, and healthcare, for instance. Ideally, you want to hand over your medical office design and remodeling duties to a firm that has some prior experience in healthcare/medical office construction services.
At Corporeal Vision, we have dedicated expertise in the design-build delivery method. We also have extensive experience designing, constructing, and renovating dentist offices and other medical offices. Over the last 7 years, we have designed, built, and remodeled numerous successful healthcare projects across Northern Virginia, Maryland, the Washington DC metropolitan area, and other nearby states.
We are one of the first design and build service providers to deliver augmented reality experiences to our clients. Using our state-of-the-art technology, you can experience a realistic 3D rendering of what your new medical office would look like after remodeling. To set up an appointment, fill out the form available on this link, or give us a call at (703) 909-4193.
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