Future Of Hospitals (North America)

Report
Real Estate Leaders
Joy Trinquet
Joy Trinquet
Claire Stephens
Claire Stephens
10 Jul, 2025

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Executive Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic, economic uncertainty and labour shortages have strained the North American healthcare system over the past five years. The healthcare market is being shaped by more knowledgeable patients, a focus on staff productivity and experience, efforts to improve hospital resiliency, and the convergence of building systems and clinical data within hospitals. Hospital executives must prioritize the digital and physical transformation of healthcare facilities to meet staff demands, patient expectations and financial goals, as well as to gain operational efficiencies. This report analyses the market, customer, staff and technological trends impacting various healthcare assets, and proposes a vision of the future of the real estate and physical infrastructure supporting healthcare systems in North America. Healthcare facilities software and service providers should leverage this report to understand the changing priorities of hospital stakeholders, and the technological developments impacting the healthcare market, to better prepare for the future. 

Summary for decision-makers
Overview of the current healthcare real estate landscape
Types of healthcare assets in the US and organizations involved
With the growth of IDNs, and healthcare consolidation, hospitals sit within large real estate portfolios
Hospitals are a component of a healthcare system in flux
Digitize or disappear – drivers for the future of healthcare
Patients are changing, alongside their expectations
Staff-focused pressures also drive facility change
The three prongs of business exigencies, building realities and medical science prod the future hospital into shape
The healthcare system – an ever-growing behemoth – may continue to hold back progress
Lack of stakeholder buy-in stems from a variety of concerns
In hospitals, technical aspects of digitization have an additional layer of challenge
Difficulties around prioritization plague hospital decision-making
The future hospital: a system of systems reaching beyond the walls of the building
Total patient centricity sets the stage
The virtual meets the physical in a system of systems
The systems approach breaks down both physical and virtual walls
Resiliency is the cornerstone of the future hospital

Rapid change promotes resiliency – and vice versa
The future hospital will offer alternative paths to resiliency

Figure 1. Segmentation of US healthcare facilities
Figure 2. Hospitals are a small but valuable part of the healthcare footprint
Figure 3. US hospitals by type, organizational structure and ownership
Figure 4. Newsweek’s top-ranked US hospitals in 2024
Figure 5. Simplified overview of hospital building systems and processes
Figure 6. Building resiliency and supporting employees are the top priorities for real estate managers in the healthcare sector
Figure 7. Drivers of change for the healthcare industry
Figure 8. The healthcare sector favours single integrated solutions over a ‘best of breed’ approach
Figure 9. The healthcare sector plans to invest in building management software and sustainability data management software
Figure 10. The 10 escalating barriers to instituting change
Figure 11. The future of hospitals as part of the urban fabric
Figure 12. Healthcare executives’ current and future use of service providers
Figure 13. The healthcare data journey

‘Nursing Times’, Academy of Robotics, Accruent, Akara, Amazon, AVEVA, Brigham And Women's Hospital, BurstIQ, California Nurses Association, CBRE, Cedar, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CHU Sainte-Justine, Cleveland Clinic, Cognizant, CommonSpirit Health, Curaflow, Dassault Systèmes, Definitive Healthcare, Deloitte, Department of Defense, Department of Labor, FacilityOS, Fortune, Friarage Hospital, Gausium, GE HealthCare, Haltian, Hartmann Radiotherapy Institute, Harvard University, HCA Healthcare, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), iStock, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Jefferson Health, Johnson Controls (JCI), Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Kaiser Permanente, Lumen, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Massachusetts General Hospital, Mayo Clinic – Rochester, McKinsey & Company, Medical Properties Trust (MPT), Medventi, Methodist Hospital, Microsoft, Milton Keynes University Hospital, Mott MacDonald, Mount Sinai Hospital, National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), National Heart, Newsweek, Northeastern University, Northwell Health, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Novo Nordisk, NRC Health, Nuvolo, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), Okta, Oracle, Oregon State Hospital, Orion Health, Penn Medicine, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Quuppa, RevistaMed, San-I-Pak, SAP, Schneider Electric, Sears, Siemens, Silen, Stanford Health Care – Stanford Hospital, Steward Health Care, Stryker, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, ThoughtWire, UCLA Health – Ronald Reagan Medical Center, UL Solutions, Universal Health Services (UHS), University Hospital of Zürich, University of Michigan Health, UR Medicine, VLogic Systems, Walmart, World Economic Forum, World Health Organization (WHO), zLink

About the Authors

Joy Trinquet

Joy Trinquet

Senior Analyst

Joy is a Senior Analyst at Verdantix, specializing in real estate, facilities and workplace technology, with a particular focus on integrated workplace management systems/conn...

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Claire Stephens

Claire Stephens

Research Director

Claire Stephens is a Research Director at Verdantix, leading research into technologies and services shaping the real estate and the built environment, encompassing ...

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