Location of a hospital/healthcare facility is one of the critical components that impact its success. It is, therefore, essential to give due importance to the selection of a location for the hospital and the process requires considerable research, market understanding, and far-sightedness. Furthermore, it is equally important for the hospital’s service-mix to be commensurate with its target market. All this becomes an important part of the hospital project conceptualization process. As healthcare consultants, we recommend certain elementary yet essential pointers to be kept in view for hospitals to optimize their location planning process.

Steps to Optimize Healthcare Location Planning Process

• The hospital should be in an area that has a sizeable population in its primary catchment area
• It has been observed that residential localities and so also industrial belts serve as decent locations for a hospital
• A growing suburb with adequate socio-economic-political support to ensure fast and steady development is another location to explore and so also is an over-crowded neighborhood with limited providers
• Furthermore, the disease burden and pattern in the area shall form the basis to assess the need for the establishment of a hospital in the given location
• The demand-supply economics in the area needs to be assessed thoroughly to understand the proposed patient load at the hospital and its commercial success. Lack of hospital/healthcare facilities in a given location is indeed a motivating factor for setting-up a hospital. However, one must critically evaluate the reasons behind the skewed demand-supply statistics.
• The presence of a known healthcare facility that offers services complimenting the proposed service-mix of the hospital can also work in favor of the hospital
• The location of the hospital must have adequate connectivity by different means and types of transport
• The location should ideally be, centrally located to serve its primary and secondary catchment area
• The location should be well-connected and duly accessible, both in routine and emergency situations
• It is also essential for the site location to be in a pollution-free environment
• Availability of utilities such as electricity, water, etc. from local authorities is paramount
• A hospital-reserved plot is a good option too, as it already has the required land certifications and saves the process of ‘change of use’
• Another important parameter for selection of location is to ensure that the site allows future expansion