Interview: Chantily Malibago, director of real estate development in health care, Mortenson

As Mortenson’s director of real estate development in health care, Chantily Malibago has her finger on the pulse of the latest trends in health care design and construction. Drawing in part from a new report from Mortenson, Malibago says the pandemic has informed health care design in a number of ways. Among those is a need for more flexible spaces for distancing and touchless designs, and quality respite areas for care providers. Mortenson says it conducted the report to better understand how COVID-19 has affected health care providers. Released in December, the report is based on a survey of professionals at the 2021 American Society for Health Care Engineering’s Planning and Design Conference. Among the biggest takeaways: Eight of 10 respondents said their facility investments in the next 12 to 18 months will be “at or above pre-pandemic levels,” according to the report. In the following interview with Finance & Commerce reporter Brian Johnson, Malibago talks at length about the report and the future of health care design and construction. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.