Reason #4: You’ll Stay Organized
The Top 6 Reasons Your Hospital or Clinical Care Unit Needs a Move Manager
This is the fourth of a six-part series on how having an external expert as your partner can make the entire process of moving or renovating your clinical space easier from start to finish. As you’ll learn, a move manger is not a moving company -it’s much, much more.

In this series, we’ll discuss some of the common issues and considerations a hospital or clinical care unit experience when transitioning to a new space. Even a small one. From managing details, stakeholders, and construction time, to communication and to minimizing stress, this series offers informative suggestions to make your hospital or health care unit move a smooth and successful transition.
If you’ve been reading my posts until now, I’m sure you already assume that staying organized is not only one of the main reasons to hire a professional for your move or renovation project, it’s essential when it’s a space that includes caring for patients. There are so many details to stay on top of—and many of these are not even actual project details. There are multi-dimensional issues surrounding patients that have to be brought into the decisions you’re making. Staying organized while managing cost, construction schedules, and ensuring communications are clear, timely and accurate, on top of rigorous daily job routines, becomes daunting. Bringing in an external move manager expert to handle these move details lightens the load for everyone.
Think of just the project itself. There are people, processes, furniture, equipment, medical devices, medication, technology and supplies—there’s so much involved. Don’t you sometimes wish you could just clone yourself? When our team at Vargas Associates handles your move for a clinical-care space, we’ll meet with all of your department heads to gather detailed requirements and develop an implementation plan, relocation guidelines and detailed—as in timed and practiced—schedules for the actual move.
Creating and maintaining the master move plan is one of the best strategies for staying organized during a move. At Vargas Associates we develop a comprehensive relocation plan that identifies all tasks needed for the relocation. We assign resources, identify the critical path and continually track all aspects of the plan as we coordinate project deliverables. This takes time and diligence to ensure every aspect is covered but is integral to how we work.
An external move manager will work with your internal project manager and construction team in order to meet key deadlines. They will also interface with key stakeholders on a regular basis, to keep the lines of communication open in order to solve any issues that come up and manage other specialized requirements that might be needed.
But wait, there’s more. Lots more.
In a clinical setting, especially a hospital, there are other stakeholders affected by a move. These include surgeons, nurses, pharmacists, donors, volunteers and especially the patients and their families. As we get closer to the move itself, we make sure to apprise everyone of the schedule. We know that there may be many factors that we have no control over but as long as we are communicating and staying on top of the ongoing needs while maintaining our move plan, we will keep all parties organized and on task. Our process includes pre-move simulations that ensure our project plan has accounted for all aspects of the move. Contingency plans are developed in the event an unforeseen circumstance arises. These are essential to keeping things running smoothly until you get to the finish line.
My years of managing clinical moves have given me a deeper appreciation for all the working parts of patient care. The nurse managers and their staffs are especially essential to making a move successful and without incident.
When it’s time to start a new renovation or relocation project in your hospital or other clinical space, consider bringing on some assistance to help drive a highly organized process that will simplify your job. I’m proud to say that Vargas Associates has earned a reliable reputation for excellence when it comes to clinical care projects.
Thanks for reading. Next time in this space I’ll write about how a move manager helps your clinical unit streamline communication during your project. I hope you’ll come back here again soon for reason #5 to hire a move manager. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to get in touch with us.