2026 Healthcare Design Predictions: Mary Frazier, EwingCole

Healthcare design professionals share their predictions for 2026 with HCD magazine. Here, EwingCole’s Mary Frazier discusses what trends and opportunities will shape the industry in the coming year.

This article was originally published by Healthcare Design on January 9, 2026, and written by Anne DiNardo.

Mary Frazier, principal, director of healthcare planning, EwingCole (New York)

Editor’s Note: This article is part a Healthcare Design’s Industry Predictions series. Throughout January, HCD will share perspectives from respected industry voices on where the sector may head in 2026 and what challenges and opportunities are on their radar.

Healthcare Design’s 2026 Healthcare Design Industry Predictions series continues with Mary Frazier, principal, director of healthcare planning, EwingCole (New York).

Here, Frazier discusses some of the opportunities and challenges she sees for 2026, including the shift to tech-as-workforce and safety infrastructure, standardization to drive ambulatory growth, and the persistence of renovation-heavy capital plans.

Healthcare Design: What lessons did the industry learn from 2025’s challenges?

Frazier: The industry kept relearning the same hard truth: financial and supply pressures don’t just shape budgets—they reshape scope, phasing, and standards. Elevated expenses and tight reimbursement conditions forced sharper prioritization and value engineering earlier in design.

In practice, this meant we had to be more disciplined about defining what truly drives clinical, operational, and patient experience outcomes versus what’s simply “nice to have.” It also accelerated interest in flexible planning, incremental build-out strategies, and repeatable solutions that can be scaled as funding and market conditions shift.

A related lesson was that resilience now has to be designed in from day one—through alternates, procurement-aware specifications, and phasing concepts that protect operations and patient access. The most successful projects weren’t necessarily the biggest ones; they were the ones with a clear strategic story, an adaptable execution plan, and early alignment between clinical leadership, finance, and design.