Smart health care facilities: Reducing costs, advancing care

By Anthony Cocarelli, managing director, and Jay Mathes, manager, Deloitte Consulting LLP

As care models evolve and digital technologies reshape clinical delivery, hospitals and ambulatory facilities are increasingly becoming intelligent, connected ecosystems.ⁱ But older health care facilities were not designed to accommodate artificial intelligence (AI), virtual health, advanced diagnostics, and specialized care. Aging infrastructure, fragmented building technologies, and limited digital integration make it difficult for health systems to adapt to new delivery models, regulatory expectations, and rising consumer demands for more personalized care (see Smart buildings can be smart business).

At the same time, the health care industry is facing mounting operational and financial pressures with margins still below pre-pandemic levels. Total hospital expenses grew 7.5% in 2025 due largely to the increasing cost of care, rising drug prices, and higher workforce costs.ⁱⁱ Moreover, facilities themselves can represent a sizable portion of this cost burden—US hospitals spend nearly $10 billion each year on energy alone.ⁱⁱⁱ For health system leaders, these pressures can demand a fundamental reimagining of both physical and digital infrastructure as levers for managing costs, strengthening margins, improving the patient and provider experience, and building long-term resilience.

Smart health care facilities are emerging as a critical lever for addressing these pressures. By integrating connected building technologies, modernizing physical layouts, and elevating data into actionable insights, organizations can often operate more efficiently, improve patient and provider experiences, and reduce energy consumption and emissions.^iv Features such as prefabricated walls, movable partitions, and acuity-flexible rooms, for example, can make it easier to adapt to shifting care needs, patient surges, or new clinical models. Physical infrastructure design is evolving to meet modern connectivity demands through larger IT rooms, expanded data pathways, dedicated robotics service corridors, and sensor-enabled distribution routes. These infrastructure investments can enable integration of advanced technologies, such as AI, IoT-enabled devices, digital-engagement platforms, and connected room systems, to deliver a frictionless and personalized patient and provider experience. (see Smart health enterprise model could enhance patient experiences). 

Five factors accelerating the shift to smart health care facilities
The shift toward smart health care facilities is being driven by a convergence of clinical, operational, and financial pressures. Several factors appear to be accelerating this shift:

1. Patient and workforce expectations: Patients, visitors, and staff have become accustomed to seamless, highly personalized experiences in their day-to-day activities, such as banking and entertainment. As a result, they expect a more seamless and technology-enabled health care experience (see The empowered health care consumer). Smart facilities can be designed to meet those expectations through IoT-enabled operating technologies (OT) that use personalized room controls and engagement tools that can automatically respond to a patient’s needs. These technologies can also help enhance the clinician experience by reducing administrative burdens, improving room utilization, and proactively supporting patient care. According to Deloitte’s 2026 US Health Care Outlook, 50% of surveyed health system executives intend to invest in tech-enabled patient-engagement and monitoring tools this year, signaling patient and provider experiences as strategic priorities.

Example: Mayo Clinic has established a distributed clinical data network platform that partners with health systems, health insurers, medical device companies, and other academic medical centers to enable better ways to diagnose issues and enhance medical treatment.^v

2. Pressure to improve operational efficiencies and control costs: Integrating OT with building information technology (IT) systems can provide real-time visibility into energy use, asset performance, and facility conditions. Advanced analytics and data-driven asset maintenance can help organizations shift from reactive maintenance to more proactive infrastructure management. Modernizing aging infrastructure to be more energy efficient can help mitigate rising utility costs and reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, AI-enabled predictive maintenance can help cut asset downtime, extend the life of equipment, and lower operational costs. In light of ongoing financial pressures, these operational efficiencies can meaningfully contribute to margin recovery and long-term financial resilience.

Example: A group of hospitals—including Grady Memorial Hospital, Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital, and Jackson South Medical Center—identified opportunities to improve energy efficiency, sustainability, and resilience. The effort started with energy audits. Some solutions, such as upgrading lighting to more energy-efficient bulbs, were simple and relatively inexpensive.^vi

3. Growing regulatory complexity: As regulatory requirements become more complex, smart building technologies are emerging as a practical tool for maintaining safe and compliant care environments. For example, 2026 guidelines—such as those from the Joint Commission^vii and the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses^viii (AORN)—emphasize stricter air handling, daily monitoring of high-risk areas, and standardized decontamination protocols. Touchless fixtures (e.g., faucets, soap/towel dispensers) and advanced air-purification systems are now standard features in newly designed medical facilities.^ix  Smart health care facilities can integrate advanced, real-time air monitoring and interconnected predictive systems to continuously monitor environments within patient care areas. These capabilities help health systems proactively demonstrate compliance and reduce regulatory risk, while simultaneously creating safer and healthier spaces for patients, families, and clinical staff.

Example: A children’s hospital deployed real-time indoor air-quality monitoring across its facilities. This provided facilities and safety teams with timely alerts and actionable insights to adjust ventilation, validate performance, and document compliance—supporting safer healing environments and readiness for regulatory evaluation.^x

4. Limited data integration: Many health care facilities lack real-time visibility into how critical systems are performing. Facilities teams often depend on reactive ticket-based systems, responding to issues only after building and system failures occur. Smart health care facilities integrate data from building systems, medical equipment, occupancy sensors, and maintenance platforms into a unified, portfolio-level operational view, generating actionable, real-time insights that enable data-driven facility management. Emerging technologies such as digital twins can help further enhance facilities management through scenario planning and infrastructure monitoring. With these data-driven insights, health care organizations can more effectively make decisions that support clinical care delivery and operational efficiency. 

Example: A mid-Atlantic health system implemented an asset and maintenance-management platform to consolidate data (across more than 55,000 assets and 130 locations) into a centralized, real-time system of record. The organization shifted from reactive repairs to more predictive, risk-based maintenance planning. This strategy helped reduce downtime and allowed for more strategic capital allocation.^xi

5. Pressure to improve energy resilience: Regulatory agencies have introduced energy efficiency codes and green-building regulations, driving hospitals and health systems to bolster their energy transition plans with sustainability reporting standards.^xii Smart building technologies (IoT sensors, HVAC automation, intelligent lighting) can help organizations identify inefficiencies and optimize energy use across entire portfolios, directly addressing cost burdens. 

Example: Kaiser Permanente leveraged smart building analytics and advanced controls to reduce energy use and support its broader sustainability goals. Kaiser has more than 80 LEED-certified facilities, including all-electric, net-zero buildings that generate renewable energy and enhance indoor environmental performance.^xiii

By integrating smart building technologies, advanced analytics, and flexible design strategies, health systems can modernize their facilities into digitally enabled assets that can enhance patient experience, improve operational performance, and support long-term sustainability goals. Health care leaders who treat physical infrastructure as a transformation lever rather than a cost burden are positioned to shape the next generation of care delivery.

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Endnotes:

ⁱNavigating the future of health, Deloitte
ⁱⁱCosts of Caring: challenges facing America’s hospitals as they care for patients in 2026, American Hospital Association, March 2026
ⁱⁱⁱEnergy efficiency trends in hospitals and healthcare facilities, US Department of Energy/Environmental Protection Agency
^ivWhy smart hospitals are defining the future of patient care, American Hospital Association, December 9, 2025
^vMayo Clinic Platform Connect, Mayo Clinic
^viHospitals power through federal changes with cost-saving energy projects, Healthcare Without Harm, August 27, 2025
^viiJoint Commission Perspective, Joint Commission, January 2026
^viii2026 guidelines for the safe use of surgical energy devices, AORN, December 4, 2025
^ixHealth care restroom design redefined, Healthcare Facilities Today, January 15, 2026
^xHospitals benefit from TSI air monitoring solutions, TSI Indoor Environments
^xiHealthcare provider improved decision making and shortened the capital-planning lifecycle, Nuvolo
^xiiState building and energy code legislation helps shape climate future, US Green Building Council, April 29, 2025
^xiiiBuilding analytics success story: Kaiser Permanente, US Department of Energy

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