Healthcare Facilities Network

FHEA Roundtable: Healthcare Facilities Leadership in 2026

• Peter

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 26:35

What are the biggest challenges healthcare facilities leaders will face in 2026?

To answer that question, Healthcare Facilities Network brought together a panel of Florida healthcare facilities professionals during the FHEA Conference for a wide-ranging discussion on leadership, operations, and the future of the industry.

Often described as FM magicians because of their ability to solve problems others never see, these leaders share their perspectives on the growing pressures facing healthcare facilities departments, including competing priorities, stakeholder management, leadership transitions, and the increasing expectations placed on facilities teams.

The conversation also examines why facilities leaders must begin developing their successors today, not years from now, and how organizations can better prepare the next generation of leaders for long-term success.

Recorded live at the FHEA Conference, this episode delivers real-world insights from professionals who continue to shape the future of healthcare facilities management.

🚨 Subscribe to the Healthcare Facilities Network Podcast to gain awareness about the rewarding career of healthcare facilities management: / @healthcarefacilitiesnetwork

👥 Connect with Peter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-martin-6284363b/

Today's Guests:
👥 Connect with Bobby Baird: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobby-baird-fashe-chfm-2ab07814/
👥 Connect with Jennifer Bello: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-bello-bs-mph-chfm-che-4b8873174/

✅ Important Links To Follow:
👉 Cref: https://cref.com
👉 HFN Website: https://healthcarefacilitiesnetwork.com/
👉Watch on YouTube: https://healthcarefacilitiesnetwork.com/
👉Listen on Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
👉Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3vWorrUkfsBprrg5S2TUjZ

✅ Stay Connected With Us!
👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/healthcare-facilities-network/
👉 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healthcarefacilitiesnetwork/
👉 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572807523974
👉X: https://x.com/HFNPodcast

📬 For Business Inquiries: pmartin@cref.com
=================================
Disclaimer: We do not accept any liability for any loss or damage which is incurred by you acting or not acting as a result of listening to any of our publications. For all videos on my channel: This information is for general & educational purposes only. Always consult with an attorney, CPA, or financial professional for advice based on your specific situation. Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

© Healthcare Facilities Network.

The Aging Crisis In Facilities

SPEAKER_01

Well and everything you guys just described is really interesting because someone listening to you talk. You got the adrenalines, which is why you like what you do, because if you didn't have the adrenaline passion, you'd be somewhere else like in and over again. So you you you you care for the patient, so you can't let those mechanical systems fail, because if they fail, patients fail. And so it actually goes to the brilliance of your story that if you're going to do a pain put, it's on advocate. Because you can't have the story fail on the patient. It has to fail on agit because at the end of the day they're still breathing, living, and coming to work.

SPEAKER_05

So you do that at a very high risk. You do, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Well, this is easy for me. I'm advocating for you.

SPEAKER_01

There's a major crisis facing healthcare facilities management. We have aging employees, aging buildings, and aging infrastructure. We've created the healthcare facilities network, a content network designed specifically to help solve for these three pressing issues in healthcare facilities management. We bring on thought leaders and experts from across healthcare facilities management. All the way from the C-suite to the technician level, because at the end of the day, we're all invested in solving the aging issue. Thanks for tuning in. Look at our videos. You will find that is a theme across our content. This is the Healthcare Facilities Network.

Meet The Facility Leaders

SPEAKER_01

I'm your host, Peter Martin. Peter Martin from FIA back with my group from last year that we met with, and it was a very enjoyable class. I asked them all to return this year for year number two. Last year's class was titled A Master's Class in Facility Management. So before we start, what I'd like to do is ask each of my guests to please introduce themselves, who they are, their role, where they're from. Terrence, let's start with you.

SPEAKER_07

Terrence Wright, the Vice President of Facilities and Support Services at the Moffat Gansership D UI.

SPEAKER_02

Jennifer Bello, DAVP of East Florida Division, but Facilities Management. HCA.

SPEAKER_08

And Bobby Beard, I'm the AVP of Facility Operations at UFL and Doris Center for Florida.

SPEAKER_01

Excellent. Well I thank my guests for uh for joining me this year. Take a deep breath. I need a sip of water, but it's not here. First question so that I can stop talking. So we all know, uh, and we were actually talking

Today’s Biggest Pressure Points

SPEAKER_01

about this prior to the cameras rolling, the immense amount of work that everybody's undergoing. We were also talking about how quickly the year is flying by and how we are almost into June. But from your perspective, guys, what pressure of all the ones that you feel, what do you feel the most today for a pressure point in your role? Terrence, again, why don't we just start with you with that we roll out? You guys feel free to interact and feel free to ask questions of each other, chuck it, you're not emate.

SPEAKER_08

I I think it's all the market pressures and things that receipt. So we're still seeing supply chain-related issues. We continue to see issues related, just recruiting tension. And I continue to be concerned about uh aging of staff and uh retirements and all of those types of things that just the uh the breath crews, uh all that institutional now.

SPEAKER_03

For me, um, you know, one of the stresses I feel that we have is satisfying multiple people. Ah, they were so like you have your division people, your corporate people um in the facilities, they have their leadership CEOs, CNOs, they everybody wants something different, and you're just trying to satisfy multiple people. And I feel at the current part of my life where I'm at, that's just a big stress.

SPEAKER_01

Let me ask though. So, how do you go about satisfying multiple people?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's a good question. I think you're you have to be a good leader to know where you need to lean in and um who to do it first, and then you just need to be able to break yourself apart and right and just do it. You just have to be able to, you know what satisfies each each person and how you can just maybe not to the total, like maybe not if there's like five things they want, maybe just pick one thing, focus on that, focus on one thing from another person that leverage.

SPEAKER_08

I Peter and Terrence, I think both of you are hitting it on the head, but one thing that uh I'm making some progress on, and I think our organization has not done a good job with is understanding the risk all with deferring maintenance. Right? So we might recognize it, but do we do a good job of helping our organization recognize that? And so as we move down a more deferred maintenance path, which no one here I'm sure has any of that, and if we don't do a good job of telling the story, and I love telling a story, then we are not doing our leadership of service. So uh Charles Clay, I know you probably know Charles, written a book or two on this, and it's it's really important. We have to get that message across. That's what worries me. Am I doing a good enough job of getting false?

SPEAKER_01

How do you try to get that message across?

SPEAKER_08

Uh it's storytelling. It's the end of it's got to be a short story because we all have very short attention spans, so it's got to be the impact of the organization if this fails. Or when this fails, really. It's like, yeah, it's going to fail. You know, my tagline on my email is something like, you know, you don't plan time to maintain your equipment, your equipment will plan it for you. So uh that's uh that's just what happens. And you just have it's a short story, it's got uh can you do it in

Deferred Maintenance And Risk Stories

SPEAKER_08

writing? One one, one and a half paragraphs, done.

SPEAKER_01

Let's go back to what Jennifer's answer was about trying to satisfy multiple constituencies. Do you folks find in your roles that are sometimes those kind of lines blurred, like who the decision makers are? It can help you on that deferred maintenance message. Like they have to go to multiple people, doesn't make it more difficult. And how do you deal with that?

SPEAKER_08

It it it does. I think one of the things that uh you have to understand is everyone comes to that discussion with a different level of life. So your CFO was different. CPO I thought it would be nice. So it's really trying to get together have that direct discussion and also that story, tailoring that story. Because as we do that, they start to get their partnership and collaboration, this initiative, and how does this then in discussion? So I think that's to be key. That's a lot of work. It is, yes. Very fun. Do you have a different risk profile? Is about finances, C and O's is about facial safety, the COs is about pictures of elevators. So they all have different perspectives at different risk profiles, and we have to acknowledge that. Absolutely. Exactly, and we have our own. We've got things that keep us up as the new ways. Right.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Uh I think I always throw out some questions first so people see. And I don't think I had anything in here on AI, but I want to pivot for a second to AI with the discussion you guys just have it. Because I was talking to Mike Neal yes, from Bay Care. And he was just mentioning AI a bit. Do you find And he was talking about how you know, again, we're still trying to figure out where we go with AI, right? But he's like, clinical wants AI, facility wants AI, kind of, we need to shift from the paradigm. So yeah, might be. Does AI, like, I guess I'm just wondering, it's a question might not even make sense, but you got preferred maintenance. AI is on the minds of all your COVID work because you can't get away from it. Um did you use AI? Are you startled to try to you know get at your data using artificial intelligence to make some of these arguments? Have you found it helpful if you have? Where are you with that? Yes. That was a low question, sorry.

SPEAKER_03

Um so HCA had their own AI. So they just started out nice. Um and but they haven't given out to everybody, so certain amount of people hadn't. Um and so far they have been to do things in the snap like a few seconds, and here you go. Um I think once they roll that out, it's gonna be especially for facilities, it's gonna be able to predict the language. Do a lot more of that. Um really need. Um right now, building an email, building uh uh that one letter, that one paragraph to state your position, that you use this. AI can help build it. So I think that's it. But you always have to be um, you know, competent of what AI is seeing. If you just can't send it out, you have to read it and make sure that it's correct. So it's not just spinning it out and sending it. You still have something.

SPEAKER_08

We're very invested with AI, O2FL. So our leadership, including myself, are very invested in. We use it free. All of our emails come in Copilot already up and running. University of Florida, we use our navigator, which is an AI platform, which are all on our side of the firewall, say we don't have to worry about PHI, any of that stuff. As an example, something that we can use it for. We get fire alarm or any or with alarms. We'll use that or bool, put that in a report and say, can we see patterns? What are the commonalities of these alarms? And it will go through 1,100 lines of alarms and say, you have 14 alarms with this, 14 with that, 7 with this, and look to see it appears these are all on the same note. How long would it take a Q to figure out 1,100 lines that we're at a pattern?

Tailoring The Message To Leaders

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, very hard. Okay, so we're very invested in it. You see, there's a lot of value, but I also know that exactly what you said, Jennifer, you can't just say, oh yeah, that's it. You have to follow it. So it is a tool, and just like anyone that's work from things, a screwdriver does not work real well on a boat.

SPEAKER_04

Right, right.

SPEAKER_08

Right, yeah, and you're right. AI, you have to bring your own intelligence, put discernment to it, will help you affording us today. But you still got to analyze it for anything else.

SPEAKER_01

From your perspective, what are some things within healthcare facilities, man? Like we always talk about aging buildings, aging infrastructure, aging employees. Some of us I get sick and talk about it, but well, it's the prime issues, right? I mean, it kind of drives everything. But are there other things, good things, bad things that you think we should be talking about more as a discipline in healthy solutions management that just doesn't get enough attention?

SPEAKER_08

I I'll take a shot at it. I I I think one of the things, and unfortunately, I'm gonna take it right back to what we're sure. It's I truly believe this industry, our profession, has a very bright future across. The problem for us though is really getting those that are coming. It's passing the retirement, someone passed the baton ties. We chucked in and we ran. It's approaching the time where we need to pass the baton to someone else, but we're not uh cultivating and bringing beaters up that will be the next leaders of our industry. We need to grow them from in inside the organization, attract over the other industries. And I one of the things I talk about you have to be attractive, tool track beater. And then we have to be ignorant. We have to ignite patties in. I see a passion in both of them. We love our jobs and we have to do it, and we need to to be that magnet, that igniter, so that we have a group of papers coming up behind us, paper raids, and drive this is for easily. I think we're not talking enough.

SPEAKER_03

And I think look

AI As A Facilities Tool

SPEAKER_03

one thing that I'm facing now is that yes, we hadn't planned to bring in the people rigged, and then we always get uh set back cuts, right? What if Sammy needs to cut? What are they called support services? That is just the cut of plans, DVS, and over back and forth microphones. And whenever they get back to our mall, okay, we start building a beating help or we're gonna build up those people, we have the plan. And a year goes by, oh, we need a cut again. So it's just a cycle that I wish you're looking at.

SPEAKER_08

When you uh have cuts that are to the bone, you often say, right? What is that risk and is that risk related back to our leadership, right? And in a meaningful way, because finance looks at it one way, uh the HO looks at it differently, everyone looks at it differently, and each of their risk profiles need to be evaluated. Um basically, if we're looking at the and it's the HVAC person almost the guy, deliver the guy. Oh man, I think the HBAC person is the one that you're not gonna refill. I have to pay those ice biches. I'm gonna issue in my patience. I'm gonna now pay someone for it, and I'm going to pay an outside company more money, and it's not gonna hit my FTs. I'm still a piece of uh first of all, I'd store blow over 50 that beats. Well, but I'm gonna be paying $110,000 a year to have that ice, those 60 ice machines planned, whatever. It's gonna happen. Yeah, and so we need to ensure that risk profile, that information goes to the right people and the right information right with every time. And going back to the storytelling, that's one of the stories that we could do so let the cylinder cost me outsourcing surgery. This is what it would cost you to pull it. And the Delta is amazing. And it's in it, I can use this individually. Oh, oh I keep that on that lock. That's how we're gonna save $50,000 and the rest is your secret.

SPEAKER_01

If you like this video, please like and subscribe to the network. And more importantly, share it with your colleagues in the healthcare industry. Together, we can solve the aging crisis that's impacting us. It almost seems like you guys are in the field every day, just looking at it talking about it. But it does seem like for every step up, get a step up, you step back. And like there's never a status pro for which to plant because it changes so frequently. And with the turnover at sea level, who should, and I don't know within your organizations, but you see it a lot. Like, every time a new sea level leader comes in, there's a new plant. And I'd use this analogy before. It's like in baseball, you get rid of the general manager, he brings

Building The Next Generation Workforce

SPEAKER_01

in all his beeper. Well, that's fine in baseball because you've got millions of dollars you can play with. But in hospitals, that model doesn't work. And that's really concerning, and you guys are on that in some ways. Do you ever see that changing? And maybe you don't have to answer, maybe it's not fair because you don't control that.

SPEAKER_08

I I don't see it changing. I think it's human nature and body right everyone from perspective.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08

Uh one of the things I do is on an annual basis, I work with uh human resources, my business partners, and all of my directors. We sit down and say, what is the landscape? They try to so we look at strategic and best conspiracy making the new buildings we're building, expansion, and everything else. What does that mean? So we have that discussion. We start laying that out, and there's return to well that we need to invest in, advance that vision. So we have that discussion that sets our plan for how we're going to go for in partnership with HR. We are Masonic Colts. Linda, this is why this position is perfect. We have that discussion so they understand criticality position. And I cannot borrow with this as a parent thing. So uh that's where we have these. They use but we are our own worst enemy.

SPEAKER_01

How are your own worst enemy?

SPEAKER_08

I like to tell stories. I'll tell you a quick short story. I'll use security as an example because but we do it in a syllabus all the time, right? Someone's locked out an ad button. Now, there's seven security people at any one time over our three hospital campus, day, night, always seven. It's a story. It's a story. When someone calls for an admin and says we're locked out of the office, everything gets dropped, that office gets unlocked in two minutes. And then when security goes, it says, We we are tapped out, we can manage what we got. Here's the number of incidents, here's the number of people, here's the metric. Doesn't work. I look at security rep and I go, why don't you put them in the queue with everybody else? And resolve or whatever it is, yes, and they're like, Well, it's admin. I'm like, exactly. Yes. Yeah. They don't realize the pain that everyone else feels, lady.

SPEAKER_06

They think I fall and you're there in a second.

SPEAKER_07

We're uh we're still a big one.

SPEAKER_06

No, that's really good. I like that. Have they changed?

SPEAKER_08

That's a hard one to change. Everyone wants to make act and feel good. And there's a good reason for that. We want our executives to be as effective as they can. They're standing outside waiting to get into a space, he's not too effective for taking time. But on the other hand, if we're sending a message that hurts us, yeah, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that, but when you frame it and look at that perspective, we are our own worst things.

SPEAKER_06

We are. And facilities here's authorities. I was gonna ask you guys, give me a facility. We keep it running no matter what happens. Band-aids, bailing hour.

SPEAKER_08

We are not gonna let that system popsicle sticks and pneumatics. We've done it all. Wait, pneumatics, y'all want that one that takes. We do whatever it takes to keep it running.

SPEAKER_06

We do the PNC and that skillet mechanically breaks. It never breaks down, and you go and you say, I need money for this, they go, ah, right. Stop broken. Did these things ever break? And you're like, break all the time, just to let you know.

SPEAKER_04

That's right.

SPEAKER_06

That is our own worst enemy. And I don't, and because I care so much about the patient, I'm not gonna let it break.

SPEAKER_08

So, how do we get that passage forward? I tell my boss, here's what's going on, this is what we did to keep 11 million square feet running. But where does that doesn't go far enough up?

SPEAKER_03

I don't know. Probably. Same thing when you have you're running on two FTEs short, but your metrics are all purpose, the building is up, everything is going good. You know, why do you really do you really need those two FTEs where you've been going six, seven months without it? And everything's good?

SPEAKER_08

Right. And you know personally the things that are getting done. So you take care of the priorities, but you also know the things that aren't getting in the gap, it goes back to that that discomfort because you know things aren't

When Reliability Hides The Pain

SPEAKER_08

getting done. Take care of the critical things, but not everything eating.

SPEAKER_03

But as facilit people in nature, we strive to our rest, and everybody's just doing their best to get it done. We're not gonna ever just sit back and be like, I don't know, we're too FT short, we're not we're just not gonna

SPEAKER_08

And the twisted part on me is we loved it.

SPEAKER_04

We love it.

SPEAKER_08

Well that's the adrenaline of the game.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. Well, and everything you guys just described is really interesting because someone listening to you talk. You got the adrenalines, which is why you like what you do, because if you didn't have the adrenaline passion, you'd be somewhere else like in and over there. So you you you you care for the patient, so you can't let those mechanical systems fail because if they fail, patients fail. And so it actually goes to the brilliance of your story that if you're going to do a pain put, it's unadequate. Because you can't have the story fail on the patient. It has to fail on the agent because the other day they're still breathing, living, and coming. So work.

SPEAKER_05

So you do that at a very high risk. You do, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Well, it's easy for me. I'm advocating for you.

SPEAKER_08

Well, you know, for us, uh food services is one of my uh departments, and um we were having a horrible time recruiting. So uh we can't fill retail positions, so what we decided to do is really cut services to administrative areas, common areas, etc., diverting to patient care. And uh and that's hard to get people's attention because people would call me and they'd say, Well, why is this all it's not open because we redirect it to care of our patients, so we cannot stand up all Ruby too albums. And obviously, it starts the toad store.

SPEAKER_01

A360 had a lot of publicity coming into the year. Are you guys hearing anything from

Staffing Cuts And Accreditation Reality

SPEAKER_01

the field? Any changes, or is it still business as usual from what you're hearing?

SPEAKER_03

I think it's um bigger chance of getting conditioned since you know the umbrella is just bigger.

SPEAKER_05

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

Um a lot of control of tags that we're getting out, um, like that the blurry, the walls, a lot of those things are hitting us. But I think other than that, they hit access everything.

SPEAKER_00

I see.

SPEAKER_08

I thought it was a a a paperwork nightmare, so everything changed, you got to change all your documents. You're you're right, Jennifer. Well, for me, it's a mathematical issue. The the denominator is now smaller, there are less standards to score. They're still gonna score at the same hits. That's wrong, the other's wrong. So those hits are the numerator. So if the denominator got smaller, but the numerator stayed the same. You go up and right. You go barbecue sauce, ketchup, get out of that mustard. Absolutely. Uh, for us, we had a survey uh under the new standards or organization of the standards in January. And we did very well. And I have a lot of uh sleepless nights as we keep getting perhaps because you're right. Yeah, you can change all your documents. Now we utilize our documents as prior to A3C, which was permitted. Uh our surveyors were amazing because it was new for them as well, and we went through it, and it felt more like a perk than it has been in quite a wise. So that part was was amazing. I had the same concern that the stairs more so and I was concerned, but uh they're they did an amazing job for us. Now that being said, they're gonna start transitioning over to uh dodging managing the ace I associated. So we're gonna be doing that. But it was uh I was really concerned, but when we went through it, it it was pretty much business game. So that that part was taxable.

SPEAKER_01

So Terrence Ray, Jennifer Bellow, Bobby Baird, thank you again for your time. We'll see you next year. So next year we're gonna have a we're gonna get a studio for you

Final Takeaways And Closing

SPEAKER_01

so that we we don't have to run around. But I thank you for your time, I thank you for your patience, and thank you for watching. A lot of great information. Masterclass number two is completed. Thank you. Thank you. If you want to be a guest on a future episode of the Healthcare Facilities Network, go to healthcarefacilities network.com and let us know who you are and what you want to talk about, because together we can solve this critical aging issue.