Doing More with What We Have: Takeaways from CHES 2026

Healthcare is under pressure. Growing populations, rising patient volumes, and workforce challenges are pushing the industry to rethink how facilities are designed, operated, and delivered. 

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As a Senior Electrical Engineer working on healthcare projects at SMP, I attended the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES) National Conference in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, this September. Three themes stood out to me: using data to make better use of space, the growing role of AI in care, and the rise of modular construction. 

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Using Data to Improve Utilization 

One of the most interesting applications of technology is not in the clinical setting, but in understanding how healthcare spaces are actually being used. 

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Building more space is not always the answer. Often, the bigger opportunity is making better use of the facilities we already have. 

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One example discussed was person-sensing technology in examination rooms, which shows administrators when rooms are occupied, for how long, and where bottlenecks occur. 

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The result can be better room utilization, higher patient throughput, and shorter wait times. 

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For an electrical engineer, this is familiar territory. Occupancy sensing already drives the lighting controls and building automation systems we design. What changes is using similar data, trended over time, to inform scheduling, staffing, and space planning based on how a facility is utilized. 

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AI in Care, and What It Asks of the Building 

AI is also playing a growing role in telemedicine and diagnostic support, analyzing symptoms alongside medical and family history to help clinicians spot patterns and, increasingly, identify risks before a condition develops. 

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It raises real questions around privacy, data quality, transparency, and bias, and it should support clinical expertise and human judgment rather than replace them. 

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What it asks of the building matters just as much. Telehealth rooms, data-heavy diagnostic tools, and connected equipment all depend on reliable power, robust network infrastructure, and backup systems that keep them running. As care becomes more digital, a hospital's electrical systems become part of the care itself. 

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On the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre redevelopment, the team and I are working towards designing new data infrastructure to replace the obsolete systems in place.  New telecom rooms will be provided in the renovation spaces to support the increased data requirements, as well as new network core rooms in the penthouse and in the lower level to provide much needed redundancy as well as new capacity to support current and future AI needs. These upgrades and additions require careful planning to ensure acute care services are kept running without interruption. 

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Modular Construction: A New Approach to Healthcare Facilities 

Healthcare has historically been slower than other sectors to adopt modular and prefabricated construction, given its complex mechanical and electrical systems, infection-control requirements, specialized equipment, and highly regulated environments. 

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Advances in design, manufacturing, and coordination are now addressing many of those obstacles. 

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The advantages are well established: accelerated schedules, construction in controlled environments, reduced material waste, and less on-site labour. 

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What has changed is the range of components that can be built off-site, from wall systems, patient rooms, and bathroom pods to the prefabricated conduit assemblies and electrical racks that fall within our own scope. 

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The application that resonated most with me was remote healthcare. Where skilled labour, materials, and construction resources are difficult or expensive to access, moving more of the work into a controlled off-site environment could make projects achievable that were once considered impractical. 

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That has particular meaning for me after working on the Nats'oojeh Hospital and Health Centre in Fort St. James, B.C., where SMP provided the electrical engineering for a facility that brings acute care, emergency services, long-term care, and primary care together for the local community and surrounding First Nations. Projects like this show how much a well-designed facility means to a remote community, and why approaches that make them easier to deliver matter. 

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Looking Ahead 

What connected all three themes for me was the idea of doing more with what we have. 

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Data can help us use existing space better, AI can support care and earlier intervention, and modular construction can make facilities faster to build and more achievable in challenging locations. 

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These technologies are already being implemented, tested, and refined today, and as engineers, our role is to design facilities that are ready for them. 

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As demands on healthcare continue to grow, sometimes the best way to expand care is to make better use of every room we already have.