Speed to care: How industrialized construction is accelerating healthcare access

Business Journals

16-05-2025

Healthcare is evolving, propelled by advancements like artificial intelligence on the clinical front and an ever-increasing demand for accessible care. According to FMI's Design-Build Utilization Study, the U.S. is projected to invest $119 billion in healthcare construction by 2028. In our current landscape, we cannot afford to build the way we always have. The future demands that we build faster, smarter, and with uncompromising quality.
As technology continues to transform healthcare and the pace of clinical innovation accelerates, the construction of the spaces where care is delivered has not kept pace. What if the way we build could advance as rapidly as the care itself? Imagine a world where building designs are no longer static, but dynamic and adjustable in real time within a virtual environment. Where stakeholders can collaborate with the design and construction teams to optimize layouts before a single wall is framed.
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Consider this, a clinician walks onto a job site mid-installation only to find the sink, monitor, and cabinetry positioned in a way that disrupts patient care. Work grinds to a halt as teams scramble to implement field modifications, a common scenario, with cases of up to 30% of design changes occurring after construction begins on-site.
Now, imagine a smarter approach, that same clinician explores the space virtually, months before construction begins. They quickly spot that the monitor is on the wrong wall and reposition it with a few clicks. The system instantly updates not just the layout, but also the necessary in-wall supports and electrical routing automatically. This eliminates the need for a detailer to manually revise drawings, issue revisions, and other associated complexities. No RFIs. No red lines. No downstream delays. Simply put, end-users have the power to control design and layout with a few simple clicks. And that means they also have buildings that truly work for the people who use them and their patients, delivered faster and smarter than ever before.
M3 Components (M3C) is rewriting the playbook for how healthcare facilities are planned and delivered. Through strategic partnerships with visionary owners and builders, M3C is delivering on the promise of helping healthcare providers open their doors to patients sooner.
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Notably, M3C recently partnered with Swinerton at a Northern California-based Cancer Center, where the early integration of prefabricated wall panels during the design and planning phase led to significant time and cost savings. Fully finished exterior panels enabled the team to enclose the building an average of 35% faster than a traditional stick-built facility. This approach not only accelerates speed to market but also provides greater schedule certainty, an essential advantage when navigating unpredictable winter months, where weatherization is critical.
At the heart of M3 Components' innovation is their ability to deliver fully finished HCAI-compliant patient exam room and bathroom modules. These pods and mods are manufactured off-site in a controlled environment and delivered to site for installation. Complementing these are M3's multi-trade prefabricated rack assemblies, which integrate mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems into a single coordinated unit. These solutions not only reduce field labor and trade stacking, but also accelerate installation while improving cleanliness and safety on-site. The results speak for themselves, in a recent proof-of-concept initiative with S+B James, M3C built the same medical exam room three different ways. Traditional framing took seven hours. A pre-cut kit-of-parts (KOP) system cut that time in half to 3.5 hours. But the manufactured wall panel system? Just 27 minutes. It's a powerful testament to the efficiency of industrialized construction and a clear sign of where the industry is headed.
Another standout example is Sutter Health's Folsom Care Center at Broadstone Crossing, where construction is set to break ground this summer. Prefabricated solutions will be used to compress the construction schedule by moving labor offsite and shifting work earlier in the project timeline.
As the need for faster, more flexible healthcare infrastructure grows, approaches to construction are beginning to shift. Industrialized construction methods and prefabrication are helping streamline delivery, reduce uncertainty, and improve quality. From significantly shortening installation times to enclosing buildings well ahead of traditional schedules, these strategies are showing real results in the field. As healthcare continues to evolve, it's clear that construction practices must also adapt to meet the demands of a faster, more connected world.