Unlike Motel 6, hospitals of the future won't always leave the light on for you; keeping patients out of beds becomes a part of health systems' cost-cutting strategies. That was among the hot topics at Bisnow's Healthcare Real Estate Summit up the coast in San Francisco recently. Also, future MOBs will come in many shapes and sizes, and some will look like "everything short of a hospital." Non-traditional options include clinics in company HQs, mobile vans, and home care devices like smart phones that can read your bodily functions and smart toilets that can take lab samples and send them in through the Internet. (That ought to make it harder for high school bullies to give "swirlies.") The keynote was by San Francisco city planner Claudia Flores. Other participants were from Arup, Kaiser Permanente, Polytech Associates, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, Table Rock Capital, and UCSF Medical Center.

Even a journey of a thousand miles begins by backing out of your driveway. Send ideas and comments to dees.stribling@bisnow.com