Scott Rawlings (Headshot credit: Courtesy of HOK)
Healthcare Design’s 2025 Healthcare Design Industry Predictions series continues with Scott Rawlings, healthcare architect in Washington, D.C.
Check out Rawling’s thoughts on what opportunities and challenges are ahead for the industry over the next 12 months, including technology investments and the future of healthcare megaprojects.
Healthcare Design: What’s the biggest opportunity for change in the new year?
Scott Rawlings: We are seeing a continued investment in advancing technologies and tools in the healthcare market, from medical technology to information technology, including systems to assist with the declining labor market.
There is a major opportunity for design firms to invest in the ability to assist clients with this area of growth.
HCD: How do you anticipate the aging baby boomer population will impact the industry?
Rawlings: This has fueled the turn from “less beds” to “more beds” in the past eight years in conjunction with the fact that we will continue to experience major pandemics. Advances in research are supporting more specialty medical centers for aging issues (vision, rehabilitation, and memory disorder) and clinical trials.
HCD: Do you think the new administration’s policies will affect construction prices and labor—how? If so, what impact will that have on the healthcare design sector?
Rawlings: No real expertise here, but according to our contractor sources, the feel is major projects may slow due to higher costs on internationally sourced materials.
HCD: Post-election, how might the regulatory environment change and what will that mean for our industry and the built environment?
Rawlings: The public sector (academic medical centers) we work in always slow after an election to judge the fallout. We feel this will be the same for this administration, especially in the areas of academic medical center research.
HCD: Do you anticipate renovations to continue to outpace new construction in the coming year or is there another shift on your radar?
Rawlings: Yes, we have seen three to five years of significant awarding of megaprojects but feel 2025 may be significantly slower in this market and 2026 may signal the end of the mega build for a time.
We are seeing significant growth in major renovations and reimagining of platforms with advanced technology as an investment in existing campuses.
Between the rising costs and slowing megaproject market, we see the trend toward renovations and smaller, more advanced outpatient as the new normal for the next few years.
For more insights from industry leaders, read here.
