For many healthcare providers, ambulatory care facilities are the right buildings right now, according to an article on the Health Facilities Management magazine website.

The cover story in Health Facilities Management's April issue cited the 2014 Hospital Construction Survey conducted by the magazine and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering. Twenty percent of healthcare industry respondents are currently working on or planning an ambulatory care construction project within the next three years, the survey said.

The U.S. healthcare design and construction market is picking up, according to Annie Coull, vice president, healthcare U.S. West region, for the design firm Stantec. "Most of the conversations and the RFPs are for master planning, strategic planning or ambulatory care," she said in the article. "This is where healthcare is going."

Electronic health records, digital imaging, telemedicine, online patient portals and technologies for self-check-in or self-rooming allow for leaner designs and operations, according to the article.

"The electronic health record has actually been huge in allowing us to switch to lesser and lesser acute venues," said John Kouletsis, facilities planning and design, Kaiser Permanente. 

"It's allowed us to start building smaller and more convenient clinics. You can show up when and how you please, and we can get into your records when you show up. That's probably one of the most important things we've done lately," he said in the article.

Read the article.