Author: Lesley Alway - AAHP Co-chair

“The average healthcare organization is 2000% more complex than the average business and has five times as much regulatory oversight.”
— Brent James, CEO of Intermountain HealthCare, 2012

This powerful statement highlights the immense challenges that Health Planners and professionals involved in Health Precinct Design face. Healthcare systems are uniquely complex, and the knowledge required to navigate these challenges is spread across various specialised domains. To succeed in such a multifaceted environment, the key lies in effective integration and collaboration across these knowledge silos.

The Challenge
One challenge is ensuring that all expertise - such as staff skilled in Infection, Prevention and Control - are involved early in the planning process to prevent silos in information sharing and ensure seamless communication throughout the project.

Who do Health Planners collaborate with?
As an example, a critical partnership exists between Health Facility Planners and Health Architects. While these roles work closely together, they are distinctly different.  The Health Facility Planner acts on the client’s behalf to interpret clinical standards, spatial relationships, work practices, patient/staff flows, as well as the movement of goods and equipment. This holistic understanding helps optimise the design of healthcare spaces for maximum efficiency and safety.

The Outcomes of Successful Collaboration
By working together, these teams can achieve several outcomes that directly impact healthcare delivery:

• Ergonomic Work Environments: Promoting safety, comfort, and efficiency for staff
• Efficient Staff and Patient Flows: Ensuring optimal use of resources and minimising delays
• Increased Safety: Both for patients and staff through improved design and processes
• Impact on Facility Design: Reducing patient length of stay and streamlining healthcare operations, which ultimately influences the physical space requirements.

The Importance of Innovation and Future-Proofing
Through effective collaboration, Health Facility Planners contribute to innovation and future-proofing of healthcare architecture.  The design of flexible, adaptable spaces ensures that healthcare facilities can meet future clinical and technological advancements, ultimately supporting better care delivery in the long term.  

Author: Rhonda Kerr - AAHP Co-chair

2024 was a year of discovery, delight and achievement. From an initial meeting of health planners from every mainland state, New Zealand and the ACT we have discovered an impressive healthcare knowledge base, brilliant systems thinkers and a passion for working through challenges to achieve remarkable outcomes.

Discovery. The first question in 2024 was ‘’Who are Health Planners and what can they do?’’ was answered with a world first Capability Framework describing the scope of practice, capabilities and capacities of health planners, standard deliverables, qualifications and attributes. These were affirmed by literature reviews, consultations and survey of 80 Australasian health planners.

Delight. All that happened by June!   The name and constitution were ratified in August and the Australasian Association of Health Planners Inc. was registered in September. Moving to the operating mode, financial systems were installed by November and the Association was launched on 27 November 2024.  One year since the initial concept meeting. Membership applications have exceeded our expectations.

Achievement. A group of competitors came together to form the first professional association for health planners in Australia and New Zealand and one of the first in the world, in 12 months. They proved to be dynamic, insightful, hard-working, brilliant, cooperative, generous, thoughtful professionals with a wealth of experiences. The AAHP has created a platform for sharing knowledge, expanding scope, learning, and above all, generous collegiate fellowship. These are people of great worth. I note the powerful contributions of Isabelle Mansour and Annabel Frazer in particular.

Advocacy for the profession status of health planners amongst decision makers in healthcare and with other professional colleagues will be a key focus in 2025. Happy New Year!!