Future-Proofing Healthcare Spaces with Modular Construction
Anyone involved in healthcare construction understands the challenge of long project timelines. The journey from initial design to full occupancy can take months, if not years. A major obstacle in designing healthcare facilities is the unpredictability of future needs. It's not uncommon for newly built healthcare spaces to require modifications before they even open, whether due to patient surges or evolving programmatic requirements.
To keep pace with these changes, healthcare spaces must be designed for flexibility. The DIRTT Construction System provides a solution through multi-trade prefabrication and layered modularity. This approach ensures precise installation while allowing for quick, clean adjustments whenever needed—an essential advantage in healthcare environments.
Scaling Adaptability Across Healthcare Systems
The power of flexible design isn’t limited to small clinics—it scales across entire healthcare networks. As health systems strive to meet evolving patient needs, static spaces can become obstacles to progress.
“One of our challenges as organization that's rapidly growing and changing is we tend to move things around,” says Dr. Keith Sale, physician vice president for ambulatory services at the University of Kansas Health System. “One of our biggest challenges was repurposing space, because what works for one specialty doesn’t always work for another. The construction time and build time would often create an impediment to quick change or quick progress and turnover.”
Sale cites a clinic where additional dermatology support was needed. Reconfiguring the space using conventional methods would have required months of work and significant downtime. This challenge influenced the design of their Corbin Park clinic in Overland Park, Kansas. By using DIRTT’s modular solutions—including solid walls with veneer and graphic panels for an elevated aesthetic and modular electrical systems to simplify future changes—the team reduced construction time while maintaining adaptability. Whether updating in-wall technology or redesigning the floor plan, DIRTT allows healthcare spaces to evolve seamlessly.
Repurposing Materials for Future Growth
For larger healthcare systems, adaptability extends beyond individual sites—it applies to entire real estate portfolios. A national healthcare provider in Minnesota demonstrated this by reusing DIRTT’s modular components across multiple locations.
Initially, the organization built a temporary clinic using DIRTT while renovating their regional headquarters. Instead of discarding the materials after the project, they stored the modular wall assemblies for future use. When the need arose for two smaller clinics, they repurposed the existing materials across separate sites.
“I don't think we used (DIRTT) the way that you're supposed to use it,” says Chrissy Anderson, the organization’s Regional Senior Director of Operations. “I think the intention is that you modify within the space that you applied it to originally, and then we're just like, no, we're going to move in two different ends of the state, because that's what we do.”
The original structure was a 6,000-square-foot metropolitan clinic in Minneapolis, operating seven days a week with 25 staff members seeing over 400 patients weekly. The new clinics, however, catered to smaller communities with different priorities—fewer procedure rooms and a greater focus on exam spaces.
“It was taking the 6,000 square foot clinic and creating these two smaller facilities that really sort of saw patients in a different way as far as the services that were provided,” Anderson explains. “Being able to make those changes was important. It's just easier to retrofit the DIRTT than it is to start carving up walls and traditional construction.”
Ultimately, the modular approach allowed the team to rethink how they utilized space. “It was really like taking these components that were designed specifically for this particular space and then saying, ‘can we move them into two very different spaces with two very different shells and still make them work?” Anderson concludes. “And, yeah, we really can. And we're successful with it. It looks fantastic.”