Episode 75, Brea E. Elles, Healthcare Design & Construction Leader, Owner of Plyhaus

About this episode

Brea E. Elles discusses the complexities of healthcare design and construction leadership in the context of real-world challenges.

"Flexibility became our currency during COVID." –Brea E. Elles on HID2.0 In today's episode, Cheryl sits down virtually with Brea E. Elles, Healthcare Design & Construction Leader. Together they pull back the curtain on what owner-side leadership really looks like when capital planning meets real-world constraints: staffing shortages, reimbursement uncertainty, supply chain, and the relentless need to keep care moving. You'll hear her practical frameworks for designing "for flow," why standardization can reduce cognitive stress for clinicians, and how teams can protect performance when budgets tighten. And if you love the details, Brea goes delightfully nerdy on the behind-the-scenes decisions that make healthcare millwork and furniture succeed (or fail) over time — from seams and water intrusion to integrated sinks, chemical resistance, and specs written for performance. In this episode, we cover: What it actually means to sit at the intersection of finance + operations + design + construction—and why alignment is the job. The teaching mindset that carries into project leadership: if you can't explain why, you don't fully understand the decision. Lean healthcare design in one…

People in this episode

Host: Cheryl

Guest: Brea E. Elles

Topics covered

• healthcare design
• construction leadership
• capital planning
• staffing shortages
• supply chain
• lean design
• patient flow

Keywords

• healthcare design
• construction
• capital planning
• staff flow
• patient flow
• supply chain
• cognitive stress
• lean design

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Plyhaus, Porcelanosa

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