Karen Hart Huey, Associate VP from Wake Forest University, shares how modern organizations can create comprehensive plans for the future.
In an era where competition and consumer demands are rapidly evolving, comprehensive planning in healthcare and higher education is not just a strategic necessity but a lifeline for ensuring sustainable, efficient, and customer-focused service delivery.
Karen Hart Huey is the Associate Vice President, Planning, Real Estate, and Space Management for Wake Forest University. She has held leadership roles in facility planning in both healthcare and higher education.
To discuss the rise and critical components of this topic, we recently caught up with Karen Hart Huey, Associate Vice President, Planning, Real Estate, and Space Management for Wake Forest University. Karen has a unique perspective on planning to share, as she’s held facilities planning leadership roles in both healthcare and higher education.
After studying architecture and a brief stint in the IT world, Karen spent almost 30 years in healthcare facility planning, initially in Texas and then in progressive leadership roles at what is now Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, NC. When she left the healthcare industry, Karen was a Vice President of Facilities and responsible for over 1,000 staff members and 12 million square feet of property. She transitioned to higher education in 2022.
Q: Karen, we are finding more and more clients in each of the practice areas we support requesting assistance with comprehensive facility plans. Why do you think the demand for these is so high right now?
Karen: Many things come to mind, but the first is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023 when the dust finally settled and companies began to recover, they realized everything had changed – supply chain, workforce shortages and shifts, remote workers, office needs, the list goes on. If you had a plan prior to 2020, it is now irrelevant. And if you didn’t have a plan before, you were probably rattled enough by the pandemic to realize that having a plan is essential.
Another potential catalyst for the rise in comprehensive planning is administrative and organizational changes, many that were sparked by the pandemic as well. New leaders bring new vision and often a renewed interest in planning.
Q: What are your thoughts on the appropriate scope of comprehensive plans?
Karen: This is a topic I’m passionate about. In my experience, your plan needs to be all-inclusive. The last comprehensive plan at Wake Forest was completed in 2009 and refreshed in 2019, before the pandemic. Real estate had not originally reported to Facilities (an important consideration). We needed a plan that allowed our stakeholders to understand all the moving parts, including program re-locations and new real estate, even our international properties.
It’s also important to understand what a comprehensive plan (historically called a master plan) is not. It’s not just a campus plan, because the purpose of a comprehensive plan is to redefine what your “campus” is. It needs to end up modeling multiple scenarios.
Q: How have the organizations you’ve led benefited from having a comprehensive plan?
Karen: It’s the “guiding star.” Strategic planning conversations are on-going, and data is always being collected. When a strategic or programmatic need comes forward, your comprehensive plan is a way to evaluate that without seeing it in isolation. A comprehensive plan that’s successful gives you the confidence to know you’re making the right decision. Decision makers must have the discipline to follow the plan.
It’s encouraging to know that if you engage the right partners and put in the work, a comprehensive plan can be very valuable. It’s important to mitigate the risks that can cause comprehensive plans to be underutilized. These risks can include:
- Internal politics or donors exerting leverage from the pledging or withholding of funds.
- Volatility in the market (this has been especially true for healthcare recently.)
- Staff turnover, especially in key leadership positions where new stakeholders often come in with a sense of purpose and new vision.
- Mergers & Acquisitions.
- Constrained cash flow, due to low margins or other economic headwinds.
A page from a study prepared by our MPS Advisors team for Gaston County Health & Human Services.
Q: As MPS Advisors, we believe the best facility comprehensive plans are built on a foundation of strategy. Do you agree?
Karen: Yes, and I’d add it’s important to start with strategy. Don’t start with the solution you want and work backwards. No one can know what the highest and best use for a building or land is until your plan has put everything out on the table. Comprehensive plans don’t come with pre-determined outcomes, and it’s important for all stakeholders to embrace this philosophy.
Q: What should a healthcare or higher education organization look for in selecting a firm to lead their comprehensive planning efforts? What expertise are you looking for them to bring to the table to supplement your internal team?
Karen: Prior comprehensive planning experience, specific to the industry. The specific skill sets of the team members that will be interfacing with your key stakeholders are important. Those are the people who will be leading critical, strategic conversations. You need people on the planning team who are capable of navigating politics and adjudicating disagreements. The data gathering piece is also critical. You’ll need communications experts who can deliver key messages in a sensitive, inclusive and considered way.
McMillan Pazdan Smith leads a visioning session while collaborating on comprehensive planning for a healthcare client.
Q: As architects and planners, our worst fear is that a lot of effort will go into crafting a comprehensive plan, only for it to sit on a shelf. How have you made sure that is not the case?
Karen: To make your comprehensive plan actionable you need finance fully integrated, engaged, and bought-in; they should be part of the modeling all along to ensure what’s being planned is realistic. Make sure you’ve included all the key stakeholders and their perspectives and that you haven’t missed anything. You want them all to feel heard, so they don’t become a hurdle to implementation. It’s hard to make everyone happy, but you can at least get them to support the plan and believe that it’s what’s best for the organization. This is where a good consultant can really make an impact and where having a clear strategy is important.
Creating a comprehensive plan is an objective process backed by data. The teams that do it the best have learned to take emotions out of the process.
Q: What words of wisdom do you have for someone who might be embarking on their first comprehensive planning effort?
Karen: Hire an expert who can help you figure out your internal structure for best supporting the process. And secure the support of the C-suite before launching into a comprehensive planning effort. It’s hard to get traction until you get support from the top.
Finally, make sure [you are] looking down the road far enough and understanding how continued growth of your market will impact space needs. Everyone thinks a building, parking deck, tower is the ‘last one’ — until it isn’t.”
– Karen Hart Huey
These insights underscore the critical importance of comprehensive planning in today’s rapidly changing environment. We’re grateful for Karen Hart Huey sharing her viewpoints informed by her extensive experience in both healthcare and higher education.
A well-crafted comprehensive plan is a powerful tool for success. It serves as a “guiding star,” enabling organizations to navigate challenges and seize opportunities with confidence
