Speed, Precision And Strategy: A Closer Look At Outpatient Healthcare Construction

The healthcare industry is in the midst of what has been dubbed an “outpatient revolution.” 

JLL’s 2025 Medical Outpatient Building Perspective stated that outpatient volumes in the U.S. will grow 10.6% over the next five years, driven by patient convenience, technological advancements and demographic shifts. 

Outpatient healthcare facilities come with unique construction challenges such as multiple stakeholders offering input, maintaining branding across several care locations, and the demand for an accelerated speed-to-market plan.  

“With a traditional hospital, there’s significant planning time and a long runway for completing a project,” Leopardo Project Executive Jorge Velasco said. “With outpatient facilities, stakeholders are expecting a faster return on investment. They want to see patients as soon as possible.” 

But building outpatient facilities isn’t just about speed. It’s also about strategy. 

Smaller Footprint, Bigger Expectations 

Outpatient facilities may be smaller than traditional hospitals, but they are no less complex. 

“These projects move faster, but the technical demands are just as rigorous,” Velasco said. “Owners expect hospital-level performance in a retail or community-based setting — and they expect it delivered quickly.” 

Unlike centralized hospitals built on large campuses, outpatient facilities are often located in high-traffic retail corridors, mixed-use developments or urban infill sites. That creates challenges such as infrastructure limitations, tight site logistics, compressed schedules, brand consistency across multiple locations and early equipment coordination. 

And the financial stakes are high. Health systems are making calculated investments to expand reach and increase market share. 

“Outpatient projects are growth strategies,” Velasco said. “Our role isn’t just to build them. It’s to help owners evaluate site feasibility, understand true cost drivers and protect long-term ROI.” 

Preconstruction As A Competitive Advantage 

Leopardo’s healthcare team is frequently engaged before a site is finalized, helping clients compare locations, analyze infrastructure constraints and model construction costs early in the process. 

That early involvement is where differentiation happens. 

“We front-load our preconstruction effort,” Project Executive Michael Rosso said. “We validate existing conditions, coordinate imaging equipment early and use advanced cost modeling tools to eliminate surprises. In outpatient healthcare, predictability is everything.” 

Many of Leopardo’s outpatient clients are repeat healthcare systems that require consistent design standards across multiple facilities. Maintaining brand continuity, operational efficiency and quality across distributed sites requires disciplined coordination — particularly when projects involve renovations of occupied facilities. 

“Occupied healthcare renovations require a high level of coordination and foresight,” Rosso said. “We understand phasing, infection control, equipment integration and, most importantly, how to keep facilities fully operational while modernizing them.” 

A Six-Figure Budget Reduction Through Early Engineering

At Silver Cross Orland Park Medical Pavilion in Orland Park, Illinois, Leopardo partnered early in the preconstruction phase to deliver a two-story multispecialty outpatient center featuring primary care, comprehensive imaging services, an 18-station infusion center, an endoscopy suite and after-hours care. The project required bringing in new utilities and coordinating the installation of advanced imaging equipment, including MRI, PET CT, mammography and nuclear camera systems. 

By leveraging digital modeling and advanced cost analytics during preconstruction, Leopardo identified design and systems adjustments that reduced overall project cost by six figures, without compromising clinical performance. 

“When you engage construction early, you’re not reacting to cost issues — you’re engineering solutions before they become problems,” Velasco said. 

Accelerating Delivery Without Sacrificing Precision 

For the 66K SF Northwest Community Healthcare Outpatient Care Center in Schaumburg, Illinois, Leopardo demolished an existing medical office building and constructed a new three-story modern facility featuring multiple imaging suites. 

Through early collaboration with ownership and local authorities, the team delivered the first floor eight weeks ahead of schedule, enabling earlier revenue generation for the health system. 

Leopardo’s Virtual Design and Construction team used advanced building  information modeling to coordinate complex MEP systems, integrate imaging equipment, minimize rework and reduce field conflicts. 

“In healthcare construction, precision drives schedule,” Rosso said. “The more you resolve digitally, the less you correct in the field.” 

The Future Of Healthcare Construction

Despite the surge in outpatient facilities, centralized hospitals are not disappearing — they’re evolving. 

“Centralized hospitals are becoming more specialized,” Rosso said. “They’re focusing on high-acuity care and advanced surgical environments, while decentralized outpatient facilities handle diagnostics, procedures and routine care closer to patients.” 

The result is a distributed healthcare ecosystem — one that requires builders who understand both the technical demands of acute care and the speed-to-market pressures of community-based facilities. 

For Leopardo, the future of healthcare construction is about rightsized facilities, strategic partnerships and proactive planning. Beyond a robust MOB portfolio, the firm is currently working with several hospital systems on extensive occupied renovation projects, most notably the vertical expansion of the Endeavor Health Cancer Center in Elmhurst, Illinois. 

“The future of healthcare isn’t defined by square footage; it’s defined by access, efficiency and adaptability,” Velasco said. “Our role is to help healthcare systems expand with confidence. That means resolving complexity early, delivering predictability in execution and building spaces that are ready for what’s next — not just what’s needed today.” 

This article was produced in collaboration between Leopardo Construction and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.