2025 Health Forecast: Navigating the Complexity of Healthcare
The healthcare industry faces complex challenges shaped by a confluence of social, technological and environmental factors. Rising costs, workforce shortages, an aging population, the growing mental health crisis, and rapid technological advancements are reshaping care delivery. To meet these demands, healthcare design must become more strategic. Space can solve systemic problems, enhance care delivery, and improve patient outcomes. Strategic design can catalyze operational efficiency, financial resilience, and human-centered care.
Architects shape healthcare organizations by designing spaces that optimize workflows, reduce costs, and adapt to a changing industry. The healthcare environment is an active participant in the healing process and a driver of success. Architects shape how care is delivered, how patients feel, and how providers thrive in high-pressure, resource-constrained environments.
Looking ahead, we’ve identified key trends where architecture may have the most impact. By staying ahead of these trends, we can ensure the industry’s physical foundations are adaptive to future needs.
TREND | Designing a More Resilient Workplace
The healthcare workforce is under immense strain, with nearly 900,000 U.S. nurses planning to leave the field by 2027 and over half of physicians considering leaving patient-facing roles. Chronic stress, burnout, retirement, and the physical demands of caregiving are driving this exodus, exacerbating shortages. Addressing this issue requires rethinking healthcare environments to better support caregiver well-being.
Architecture can improve workplace conditions through more efficient layouts and workflows, natural and circadian lighting, and noise reduction to alleviate stress and fatigue. Break areas are evolving into restorative spaces with meditation rooms, outdoor terraces, and fitness facilities to promote recovery. Safety is also crucial, with design interventions like controlled access points, clear sight lines, and calming aesthetics to mitigate workplace violence.
SmithGroup helped Brigham and Women's Hospital reimagine staff work zones to enhance engagement and communication. The Collab Hub concept promotes unity and problem-solving with flexible sit-to-stand hot-desking, huddle rooms, and workrooms, all with line of sight to patient rooms, optimizing serendipitous social interactions among the care team.
TREND | Prioritizing Empathy and Human Connection in Behavioral Health
With nearly a quarter of U.S. adults experiencing a mental disorder and a sharp rise in mental health challenges among children and teens, behavioral health facilities are shifting from traditional, institutional aesthetics to environments prioritizing empathy, openness, and human connection. This design philosophy respects patient dignity without sacrificing safety or security.
Modern facilities feature open, inviting designs to promote human connection and reduce the stigma often associated with seeking care. Natural light, soothing colors, and quiet spaces create a calming atmosphere while sensory rooms and communal areas support various therapeutic approaches. Additionally, mental health services are increasingly integrated into outpatient clinics and acute care settings for seamless access. This holistic approach bridges physical, social, and mental health, emphasizing collaborative care.
The Mental Health Urgent Care Center & Residential Withdrawal Management Facility at the LA General Medical Center creates a warm, village-like atmosphere. It combines comfort and community, with shared garden courtyards, natural light, and secure outdoor access. Thoughtful design and calming materials uphold the dignity and well-being of occupants.
Patient-first is still critical: any focus on the patient is good for the industry.
SmithGroup Health Advisory Board Attendee
TREND | Aging Populations and Evolving Demographics
Demographic shifts are intensifying demands on the healthcare system, especially the aging population; by 2030, over 21% of Americans will be 65 or older. Chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and dementia are straining healthcare capacity, while younger generations face rising rates of obesity, depression, hypertension and cancer. These trends require healthcare environments that accommodate diverse, complex needs without sacrificing efficiency or patient-centered care.
Architecture can address these challenges by creating accessible, adaptable and intuitive spaces. For older patients, this means facilities with universal design features. For younger patients and those with complex conditions, it means spaces integrating behavioral and physical health services seamlessly. Whether through telehealth-enabled clinics or senior living facilities, architecture can meet the demands of a growing and diverse patient population while reducing strain on healthcare providers.
TREND | The Patient as Consumer
The rise of consumerism in healthcare is reshaping patient expectations and challenging traditional care models. Patients now expect healthcare experiences to rival that of retail or hospitality, focusing on convenience, transparency, and accessibility. This shift has fueled the growth of outpatient clinics, telehealth services, and hybrid care models.
Architects are designing flexible spaces that empower patients and foster loyalty. Amenities like retail, dining, entertainment, and wellness facilities, multi-use waiting areas, and digital integration are designed to enhance the patient’s journey. Facilities integrate smart technology to improve efficiency, from kiosks for streamlined check-ins to systems providing real-time updates on wait times and appointments. By aligning design with consumer expectations, healthcare providers can meet demand and differentiate themselves in a competitive market.
(Clockwise from top left) Sharp Chula Vista Ocean View Tower | Mountain Park Health, Glendale Clinic | Sutter Health/California Pacific Medical Center, Van Ness Campus
TREND | Harnessing Technology to Transform Care
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and precision medicine is revolutionizing care delivery, and architecture must adapt. AI-powered systems are redefining diagnostics, operational efficiency, and resource management, while robotics reshape surgical suites, pharmacies, and supply chains. Precision medicine, which tailors treatments to individual genetic and environmental factors, means the addition of specialized labs and treatment areas. These innovations require a robust IT infrastructure, flexible layouts, and added spaces to support AI-driven systems and data-intensive operations.
Healthcare architecture today is about enabling seamless collaboration between people and machines. Smart hospitals with centralized command centers, plug-and-play diagnostic spaces, and AI-driven smart patient rooms represent the future of care. These facilities improve clinical outcomes and enhance patient experiences by creating environments that are high-tech and human-centered. As technology evolves, architects must design spaces that anticipate innovations while grounding care in compassion and connection.
The expansion of UT Southwestern’s Radiation Oncology Center nearly doubles its size, adding seven new linear accelerator vaults equipped with Elekta Unity MRI Linacs, Varian Ethos, Varian Halcyon Linacs, and a RefleXion PET Linac. One of the largest and most innovative arrays of radiation therapy equipment in the world, the center supports UTSW's advanced research in radiotherapy, immunotherapy, and personalized care through the use of A.I. The building is currently facilitating clinical trials in personalized ultrafractionated stereotactic adaptive radiotherapy (PULSARTM).
TREND | Shifting Sites of Care
One of the most significant shifts in healthcare is the migration of high-acuity care from hospitals to outpatient facilities. Outpatient revenue now equals or exceeds inpatient revenue. Procedures that once required lengthy hospital stays, including many surgeries, chemotherapy, and advanced imaging, are now performed in ambulatory care centers. This shift is driven by cost efficiency, site-neutral policies, patient convenience, and advancements in minimally invasive techniques, placing new demands on architectural design.
Outpatient facilities must balance hospital-grade care with community-based accessibility. Modular designs allow these spaces to adapt to changing patient volumes and service lines, while high-performance building systems ensure patient safety. By creating seamless transitions between diagnostic, treatment, and recovery spaces, design can optimize workflows and elevate the patient experience. As care delivery boundaries blur, architecture must provide the infrastructure to support this evolution.
UC Davis’s newest surgical platform, the 48X Complex, is set to open in July 2025. This four-story, 268,228 sf facility is one of the largest outpatient surgery centers in the country, featuring 14 operating rooms, 59 recovery bays, 14 single occupant 23-hour recovery rooms, 96 clinical exam rooms, and 19 clinical treatment rooms. A one-stop approach incorporates pharmacy, imaging, physical therapy and patient support and education. Designed to offload volume from the inpatient setting, it will accommodate a wide range of procedures, including interventional radiology and robotic surgery, ensuring flexibility for future needs.
TREND | Managing Capital Constraints
Continued financial pressures in healthcare are a barrier to delivering the care communities need. Rising costs, declining reimbursements, inflation, and material and labor shortages are squeezing budgets as demand climbs. Architects can assist clients in leveraging innovative financing strategies like the IRA’s enhanced Section 179D tax credits, Public Private Partnerships, and green financing models like Boston Medical Center’s $232 million green bond initiative.
Architects are also transforming facility delivery to reduce costs and improve speed-to-market through collaborative models. Design-Build consolidates design and construction roles, while Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) fosters even deeper collaboration by aligning all shareholders under a single contract. Architecture is about designing buildings, but also about creating financial strategies and delivery systems that make facilities feasible and future-ready.
Healthcare Design as a Catalyst for Change
Healthcare architecture has always been about problem-solving, but design today must also address increasingly complex and expanding operational challenges. It means creating environments that adapt to an ever-changing landscape of care, and that integrate new technologies, new economic models and shifting patient priorities. By addressing workforce shortages and financial pressures, supporting technological innovation, integrating mental health design solutions, and meeting the needs of diverse patient populations, architecture can transform not just physical spaces but the entire healthcare experience.
With the healthcare landscape evolving at an accelerating pace, new challenges and opportunities will continually emerge. By anticipating these trends, SmithGroup is helping leading healthcare organizations navigate increasing uncertainty while meeting the growing demand for care. This next generation of healthcare facilities balances efficiency with empathy, creating more responsive environments that support patients, providers and our communities—ensuring a healthier, more resilient future for us all.
The design team needs to be an extension of the owner and a conduit to these changes: translate what is happening and why.
SmithGroup Health Advisory Board Attendee