Focusing on facilities for sustainable cost savings

“What I see too often across the industry is that we promote the cost savings from these projects, but we often don’t hold ourselves accountable for taking those savings out of the budget,” says Robert Biggio (pictured at right), senior vice president for facilities and support services at Boston Medical Center (BMC). Yet doing just that is critical to gain credibility with board members and senior leaders and to keep the momentum going, he says.

At BMC, leaders have achieved approximately $25 million in annual operating savings by consolidating two campuses (the previous Boston City Hospital and Boston University Hospital campuses) to avoid duplicate functions. Some departments now share space, such as an outpatient clinic that has pull-down beds so that it can be used as a sleep center in the evenings.