With healthcare costs on the rise, our Signature Performance team is more committed than ever to finding innovative solutions to reduce administrative costs and burdens. Since our founding in 2004, we’ve been on a mission to bend the curve of healthcare administrative costs, aiming to transform the industry and enhance the quality of care. We believe that innovation drives transformation. We believe in improving the health of our clients’ business and strive to make the lives of the people we work with better.
For almost twenty years, our team of experts have been exploring new, innovative ways of challenging the status quo in the healthcare industry by developing solutions designed to lower the overall cost of healthcare. We keep a pulse on healthcare trends and innovations, one such trend is Medtail.
Now what exactly is Medtail? Medtail is the repurposing of former commercial real estate space for pop-up healthcare clinics, ambulatory services, and or long-standing outpatient care facilities. With more than 60% of the United States workforce now opting for remote or hybrid working arrangements, our cityscapes are left with hundreds of empty, vacant commercial properties with no new leases on the horizon. It is estimated that in the U.S. alone, there is over 963 million unused square feet of commercial real estate due to a 38% reduction in desired, on-site office space. This space includes anything from once-bustling city high-rises, to strip malls, to abandoned shopping and business centers. If left unattended, not only can these abandoned structures be an eye-sore in a community, but they also can lead to higher crime and property damage rates, lower tax revenue, and decreased discretionary spending trends.
The Medtail Solution
Rather than leave these buildings empty or schedule a tear down, there is a new effort to reuse these structures to help transform healthcare in communities across the country. These spaces can be transformed, adapted, and redesigned to accommodate healthcare providers and services that would otherwise require millions of dollars to build new facilities. Much like the innovative and spookily-fast Halloween superstore, Spirit Halloween, many healthcare organizations are jumping onboard and seeking out abandoned properties to grow new and existing healthcare operations at a fraction of the cost. And, not only are these preexisting structures helping the bottom line, they are also increasing the speed in which new services can be provided to the community. Less building time equals less construction costs; which ultimately results in providing more care at a lower cost.
So, why now? Can’t we just wait for businesses to require their employees to return to the office? Sort of. But what we can’t predict is the actual number of vacant properties due to most commercial leases having a five to ten year contractual agreement. In other words, it is recorded that as of July 2023, over 25% of commercial retail space is vacant, but that figure only accounts for vacant spaces available for lease. This number doesn’t account for spaces that are still under contract but have since been abandoned by companies due to high-operating costs and low employee attendance.
Increasing Access and Affordability
With countless vacant properties throughout the US and a continuous demand for more affordable and accessible healthcare services, Medtail might be the solution we never knew we needed. If local retail complexes remain vacant for another two years, the space will become outdated and cease to be a timely, cost-effective solution for healthcare organizations seeking affordable, tangible facilities. It is estimated that over 58% of healthcare spending in 2022 was spent on medical building transactions. Imagine if half of that was spent on providing care to underserved or low-income communities? Imagine if a portion of that money was spent on providing free preventive healthcare services to at-risk youths or the elderly? With the Medtail trend on the rise, not only are healthcare organizations spending less on outfitting new facilities, they are also bringing healthcare services to new communities, making healthcare more affordable and accessible.
Accommodating the New Workforce with Reimagined Spaces
At Signature Performance, we are dedicated to creating innovative solutions for our clients and Associates. One way Signature has seen a change in the workplace landscape throughout the pandemic, was the need to create more collaborative and versatile workspaces. Although many companies went to a fully-remote work model, our team has found ways to accommodate everyone’s working needs whether they are on-site or working remotely.
With over 1,200 Associates located in 48 states, our office space needs have adapted over time and have required more diversity in the way we approach a traditional office. Chris Vairo, Chief of Staff at Signature, manages and oversees how we approach our facilities spaces and has made strides to accommodate the changes brought forth by the pandemic.
“With a much higher percentage of our front-line Associates working remotely now versus pre-pandemic, we have had an increased need for more traditional offices per square foot (less cubicles), as well as an increased desire for more collaboration space. We are seeing that while a lot of front-line Associates desire to work remotely, a large group of our supervisors and managers prefer to be in the office for most of the week to help manage the business with a hands-on approach. To meet our team’s changing needs, we have increased our collaboration space to allow Associates to come together in creative spaces to ideate and strategize and have reimagined what a traditional office space could look like.”
To learn more about Signature’s quest to transform the healthcare industry and the ever changing workforce, visit signatureperformance.com/aboutus.