How Data Can Improve Healthcare IT Construction Planning

Healthcare construction projects create a unique opportunity for technology leaders to evaluate how technology is used across the organization and make informed decisions about the future-state environment. Yet many technology decisions are still based primarily on stakeholder requests, outdated standards, or assumptions carried forward from previous projects.

Healthcare environments are constantly evolving. Clinical workflows change, device inventories grow, wireless utilization increases, application portfolios expand, and new technologies become operational necessities. A new hospital, outpatient center, tower expansion, replacement facility, or major renovation often represents a rare opportunity to evaluate existing technology strategies before significant investments are made.

Organizations that incorporate operational, technical, and historical project data into construction planning are better positioned to improve standardization, support future growth, and avoid costly redesign efforts later in the project lifecycle.

The Best Technology Decisions Start Before Design

Technology planning frequently begins with discussions about future-state rooms, devices, infrastructure, and application requirements. While those conversations are important, some of the most valuable information may already exist within the organization.

Before design is finalized, healthcare IT leaders should consider reviewing and updating, when applicable:

• Enterprise IT device standards

• IT Division 27 standards

• Device inventories

• Wireless utilization reports

• Telecom and collaboration platform usage

• Application portfolios

• Service desk and support ticket trends

• Clinical workflow assessments

• Technology lifecycle and replacement schedules

• Historical project lessons learned

• Existing infrastructure capacity reports

These data sources can help project teams validate requirements, identify gaps, and align technology planning with organizational objectives.

Not every organization will have all of this information readily available. Greenfield projects, newly formed health systems, and organizations entering new markets may have limited historical data to reference. In those situations, project teams can utilize enterprise technology standards, comparable facilities, peer benchmarking, vendor utilization data, and lessons learned from similar projects to support decision-making.

Using Existing Data to Inform Infrastructure and Device Planning

Many of the earliest technology decisions in healthcare construction involve the infrastructure required to support clinical and business operations. Network architecture, wireless coverage expectations, structured cabling standards, telecommunications requirements, and technology room sizing are often established well before individual device counts are finalized.

Existing standards, infrastructure performance data, and lessons learned from operational facilities help validate these early design assumptions and identify areas where standards may need to be updated.

Wireless connectivity has become foundational to healthcare operations. Clinical communications, mobile devices, RTLS platforms, patient engagement technologies, building automation systems, and medical devices all rely on robust network infrastructure. When planning a new facility, organizations should evaluate network performance data from existing or comparable locations rather than relying solely on architectural assumptions.

Questions worth exploring include:

• Where do wireless coverage issues commonly occur?

• Which departments have the highest device density?

• Where are bandwidth demands increasing?

• What technologies are expected to be added over the next five to ten years?

• Are there recurring network-related support tickets?

• Are there known challenges supporting mobile or roaming devices?

Understanding how existing environments perform can avoid recreating known problems in new spaces while establishing infrastructure capable of supporting future growth.

As planning progresses, organizations must also determine how many devices are needed and where they should be located. Traditionally, these decisions are driven by department requests or established design standards. While both are important inputs, they may not always reflect actual utilization patterns.

For example, when evaluating existing facilities or similarly sized locations, organizations may discover:

• Workstations that are rarely utilized

• Shared devices that are consistently overutilized

• Redundant printers serving the same operational area

• Clinical areas with growing mobility requirements

• Device standards that vary significantly between facilities

Reviewing utilization data alongside clinical workflows informs decisions regarding workstation placement, move-versus-buy strategies, mobile device deployment, printer placement, and future replacement planning. Construction projects provide an opportunity not only to purchase new technology but also to improve consistency across the enterprise and reduce unnecessary variation between facilities.

Looking Beyond Construction to Future Operations

Technology planning should not stop at opening day. A facility may open several years after planning activities begin. During that time, device standards, cybersecurity requirements, wireless utilization, clinical communication platforms, and interoperability expectations can change significantly. Decisions made early in design should be periodically revisited throughout the project to ensure selected technologies still align with organizational strategy when the facility becomes operational.

IT construction planning should include an evaluation of:

• Technology refresh cycles

• Hardware replacement schedules

• Software maintenance requirements

• Lifecycle management strategies

• Anticipated growth in connected devices

• Emerging interoperability requirements

Planning for future operational demands can reduce the need for significant infrastructure modifications shortly after occupancy and improve long-term return on technology investments.

Evaluating Application Portfolios Before Purchasing New Solutions

Construction projects often generate requests for new applications, specialty systems, and departmental technologies. In some cases, the requested functionality may already exist elsewhere in the organization.

Before approving new purchases, organizations should review:

• Existing application inventories

• Licensing agreements

• Integration requirements

• Support models

• Governance processes

• Standardization opportunities

This evaluation can help reduce duplicate systems, simplify support requirements, and improve interoperability across the enterprise.

Construction projects frequently expose technology fragmentation that has accumulated over many years, particularly in health systems that have grown through mergers and acquisitions. It is not uncommon to discover multiple applications supporting similar workflows, different technology standards between facilities, or inconsistent support models across the enterprise. Evaluating these environments during planning provides an opportunity to rationalize applications before they are replicated into a new facility.

Using Historical Data for Resource Planning

One of the most underestimated aspects of healthcare construction is the workload placed on internal IT departments. Technology teams remain responsible for daily operations while simultaneously supporting construction activities, design reviews, procurement efforts, equipment deployment, testing, activation planning, and go-live support.

Organizations can improve planning by examining historical data from previous projects, including:

• IT staffing requirements during activation

• Device deployment timelines

• Application configuration efforts

• Testing durations

• Issue resolution trends

• Post-go-live support volumes

These insights help leadership understand where additional resources may be required and reduce the risk of overloading operational teams during critical project phases.

However, if these data points were not historically tracked, or if the organization's last construction project occurred many years ago, the information may have limited value for future projections. In those situations, establishing baseline measurements and tracking these metrics during the current project can provide valuable information for future construction efforts.

Establishing Data-Based Governance

Technology governance should align with major construction decision points, including design, procurement, activation planning, and transition to operations. Organizations should consider establishing governance structures that regularly review IT project metrics, technology budgets, resource demands, scope changes, and potential risks.

This governance approach supports answering important questions throughout the project:

• Are technology costs trending as expected?

• Have new scope requests been properly evaluated?

• Do IT staffing plans align with upcoming milestones?

• Are technology decisions supporting enterprise standards?

• Has a future operational impact been identified?

• Have key assumptions changed since earlier phases of the project?

Regular review of objective IT project data supports leadership teams to make informed decisions while maintaining alignment between technology, operations, and construction objectives.

Equinox HIT Is Your HIT Construction Partner

Healthcare construction projects generate thousands of technology decisions involving infrastructure, applications, devices, interoperability, cybersecurity, budgeting, staffing, procurement, activation, and transition to operations. The most successful organizations use data to guide these decisions rather than relying solely on outdated standards or assumptions.

Many healthcare organizations lack access to reliable historical construction data. New hospitals, replacement facilities, major expansions, and infrequent capital projects often leave technology leaders with limited information to support budgeting, IT staffing forecasts, infrastructure planning, and activation readiness efforts.

As a Technology Owner's Representative, Equinox HIT helps bridge that gap. Drawing from decades of healthcare IT construction experience and data from our portfolio of healthcare construction projects managed through our integrated platform, Solstice KEY®, we help organizations make informed decisions throughout the project lifecycle. Our team uses this data to support technology budgeting, IT resource planning, infrastructure strategy, governance, activation planning, and risk identification based on lessons learned across previous projects.

Rather than asking organizations to navigate complex construction challenges using assumptions alone, we provide the visibility, benchmarking, and healthcare IT construction expertise needed to support confident decision-making from planning through transition to operations.

If your organization is planning a new facility, expansion, replacement hospital, or major renovation, we're here to help. Contact us.

This article was developed by the Equinox HIT Team with editorial assistance from AI tools and re-reviewed by the Equinox HIT Team for accuracy and alignment with our standards.