The Current Reality

Most capital projects are built around a single objective: a successful First Patient Day that opens on time and on budget.

But opening day is not the finish line. It’s the beginning of a 20- or 30-year operational reality. The decisions made during design will shape that reality long after the ribbon is cut.

Many health systems treat activation as the finish line, with operational issues being addressed late in the process, if at all. Subsequently, organizations end up absorbing the financial and operational cost of decisions that were never fully validated before construction began.

The result: new facilities open that are immediately operating below potential—and administrators spend years trying to fix them.

During the assessment phase, IMH conducted a comprehensive evaluation of key areas and engaged with department leaders. The team’s methodical approach, collaboration across hospital disciplines, and ability to identify potential challenges early have been critical in shaping the next phase of the hospital activation process.

– Devan Reuss, Vice President of Patient Services and Chief Nursing Officer, Margaret Mary Health

What the Industry Optimizes For vs. What Actually Matters

A Different Approach

There’s a better question to ask at the start.

What if operational performance—not opening day—was the primary design objective?

That shift in framing changes everything: how workflows are validated, how capital is allocated, how design decisions get made. It means aligning what the facility is built to do with what the organization actually needs it to do. Both on Day One and for the decades that follow.

IMH Healthcare brings a much-needed skill set to helping organizations define and develop strategies during planning assessment to set the table for overall project planning, estimating, optimization, and activation of projects large and small.

– Parveen Chand, Chief Operating Office, Ascension St Vincent Indiana

The Question for Leadership

Are we building a facility that opens successfully—or one that performs at a high level for the next 20 years?

With hundreds of millions in capital, long-term cost structure, physician and staff productivity, and decades of financial performance at stake, the difference matters.

IMH’s Operations Readiness Assessment far surpassed our expectations with the amount of detail and tailored practicality we were looking for.

– Jeff Caeser, VP, Construction & Real Estate Community Health

Opening the Conversation

We’ve been spending time with health system leaders across the country exploring how to better align operational performance with capital planning decisions.

We’d welcome the chance to hear how your organization is thinking about it.