Chesapeake Healthcare Planning
Optimizing Operations with Medical Equipment Planning

In the dynamic and fast-growing healthcare arena, organizations must rethink and redesign their facilities frequently to ensure optimal patient care. Facility optimization, however, goes beyond infrastructure development and extends into the purview of medical equipment planners who direct and manage every phase of a project. Medical equipment planners are therefore essential to helping acute care facilities expand and make more flexible use of their space. They also enable organizations to improve their ambulatory services, integrate telehealth, and enhance patient experience and health quality at an affordable cost.

Fostering a passion and dedication toward making the medical industry function better, Norma and Mitch Norris established Chesapeake Healthcare Planning (CHP) to help organizations minimize their total cost of ownership while delivering projects with a “right the first time” quality assurance. Mitch and Norma have a combined 25 years of experience in the architecture and medical device arena, respectively, and decided to address the need for a more than traditional MEP service. In step with this, CHP sought to deliver procurement, transitioning, operational readiness, logistics, and other related services, something no other company was providing at the time.

CHP works as a liaison between construction firms, engineers, and architects and helps materialize their clients’ vision. This collaboration with distributor partners helps it hold the equipment at minimal additional cost throughout a project’s duration, saving clients millions of dollars at a time.

This on-hold equipment facility also ensures a timely delivery of projects irrespective of construction delays. For example, a project in Lakeland, Florida had to be postponed by six months due to a hurricane, but clients were not impacted by any supply chain issue due to CHP’s on-hold equipment services. Undoubtedly, it is well-known for its ability to bypass market challenges like budgetary constraints and supply chain issues.

From the first step of a project, CHP works hand-in-hand with architects to effectively and strategically plan equipment. Clients also grant it access to their procurement systems. Here, it contacts vendors and distributors on their behalf whenever the healthcare organization’s procurement team is busy with day-to-day operations.

CHP is a specialist in operational readiness and houses a dedicated team. In a nutshell, it works closely with clients from day one to help them timely and meticulously navigate every aspect of a project. Where most medical equipment planners offer only cut sheets (equipment information), CHP delivers a gamut of services to build or revamp standalone emergency departments, cancer centers, or entire hospital projects. “No project is too small or big for us. Irrespective of their size, we are always ready to provide the best of our services, make adjustments when needed, and ensure we have the right resources,” says Norma Norris, founder and president, CHP.

Among many similar successful projects, CHP recently helped a renowned hospital decommission their old building and transition to a new one. This project was complicated as the hospital needed to continue their operations throughout the project and not disrupt patient care. In addition, the equipment planning decided by the hospital was outdated and surpassed the budget they had initially prepared. CHP’s expertise enabled them to undergo the whole transition hassle-free, manage the project, and decommission older equipment. Pleased with the outcome, the client provided it with references. Projects like this allow CHP to chart the length and breadth of the country and change the face of the medical industry.