Nick Fabrizio PhD, FACMPE, FACHE, is a principal consultant with the MGMA Health Care Consulting Group and serves on the faculty at Cornell University’s Sloan Program in Health Administration, where he has also served as the executive in residence. His primary expertise is in physician practice management and managing complex physician-hospital relationships.
Healthcare Facilities Planning and DesignCornell Certificate Program
Overview and Courses
Healthcare facility design is more than picking the right wall colors or materials. If done well, healthcare facility design and planning can transform your organization and improve safety, operations, and the bottom line. Above all, an optimal, patient-centered healthcare environment has the power to improve clinical outcomes.
This six-course certificate program provides you with in-depth instruction in effectively using evidence-based research to improve a healthcare environment. Core courses cover the critical components of healthcare facilities design planning. Learn excellence in change leadership, stakeholder management, and strategic alignment with organizational goals. Create your strategic plan and execute and assess it by using data to gauge impact. Learn some of the critical skills you need to lead your project to success or dive deeper to interpret technical facility design plans.
For the best experience in this program it is recommended to take these courses in the order that they appear.Healthcare delivery continues to be in a state of constant change and as a result, today's healthcare leaders must transform the way their organizations respond to and lead change initiatives. In this course, professionals will “reset” their thinking around how best to understand, measure, implement, and lead successful change initiatives.
Leaders will assess their current culture, map out the ideal future state, create a business strategy consistent with the organization's vision and values, and ultimately implement the strategies or business processes needed to affect and support the organizational culture they want.
What is process thinking? How can it help you improve your healthcare organization?
In this course, you'll explore the concept of process thinking and access several reusable tools to help you develop and improve processes at your organization. You'll examine how to spot what's wrong in a process and determine solutions to those problems.
How can you ensure your organization is providing a service that meets the expectations of both patients and guests? Are there ways your organization could improve customer satisfaction while reducing costs?
In this course, you'll explore how to measure quality and diagnose what's causing issues with quality in your organization. You'll also explore methods for improving processes while maintaining quality at your organization.
Effectively applying environmental psychology principles and theories to the design of health care settings can powerfully enhance the quality of life for residents. Whether you're working as a designer of a new health care facility, an administrator of an existing facility, or within the healthcare field, you can use the research to inform decisions about design choices for the space. This relatively new science addresses not only how human beings perceive their surroundings, but also the ways in which good design can optimize people's interactions with the physical world.
In this course, you will explore how to access and analyze design research to evaluate the world around you in order to create environments that support health and wellness.
Symposium sessions feature three days of live, highly interactive virtual Zoom sessions that will explore today’s most pressing topics. The Leadership Symposium offers you a unique opportunity to engage in real-time conversations with peers and experts from the Cornell community and beyond. Using the context of your own experiences, you will take part in reflections and small-group discussions to build on the skills and knowledge you have gained from your courses.
Join us for the next Symposium in which we’ll discuss the ways that leaders across industries have continued engaging their teams over the past two years while pivoting in strategic ways. You will support your coursework by applying your knowledge and experiences to relevant topics for leaders. Throughout this Symposium, you will examine different areas of leadership, including innovation, strategy, and engagement. By participating in relevant and engaging discussions, you will discover a variety of perspectives and build connections with your fellow participants from various industries.
Upcoming Symposium: June 27-29, 2023 from 11AM – 1PM ET
All sessions are held on Zoom.
Future dates are subject to change. You may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending Symposium sessions is not required to successfully complete any certificate program. Once enrolled in your courses, you will receive information about upcoming events. Accessibility accommodations will be available upon request.
Even experienced project leaders will ask themselves “Why won't people listen to me?” or “What went wrong with my plan?” Of all the skills critical to project leadership, emotional intelligence may be the most important—and least understood.
In this course, you will learn to identify, analyze, and manage emotions, both yours and your team members'.
It is a common mistake among project leaders to focus too heavily on the mechanics of project management while neglecting the critical people skills that keep everyone engaged and working harmoniously. In this course, from Robert Newman of Cornell's College of Civil and Environmental Engineering, project leaders will explore concepts of emotional intelligence and practice skills relevant to managing emotions so that they can enjoy better project outcomes. You will focus on five critical aptitudes: communication, relationship management, decision making, conflict management, and motivation.
Healthcare organizations and the physicians who run them often approach the task of management in much the same way as they approach a patient: they quickly identify symptoms or problems, make a diagnosis or analysis, and develop a treatment plan or solution. While this technique may work when making decisions about day-to-day operations, it's inadequate for evaluating the overall health of an organization and for making long-term survival plans. Effective strategic planning requires healthcare managers to shift their perspective from being a service organization to being a business.
This course teaches you several models to help you lay the foundations of a strategic plan based on the existing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing your organization. Ultimately, you will learn how to collect the right data to help you evaluate whether to invest in, discontinue, or develop certain products and services to ensure any strategic plan you devize will be profitable and in alignment with your organization's mission and vision.
Many medical groups develop strategic plans that are never implemented because the plans did not articulate how to measure progress, did not assign resources to do the work, and did not consider how to report on the goals.
This course asks you to apply organizational information you've gathered using analysis tools such as SWOT, BCG, and Porter's Five Forces to develop a strategic plan that includes specific details about who, what, when, where, and how to work on each of the agreed-upon strategic goals.
Ultimately, this course will equip you with the tools to be able to develop a comprehensive strategic plan that involves the right stakeholders and that aligns with your organization's core mission and values.
The American healthcare system is continuously in flux and requires adaptability from those working in the industry. As a leader, it's also imperative that you make your organizations efficient and safe; improving quality is job number one. This unique balance of priorities requires healthcare leaders to ensure that everyone across the organization is in support of and working towards achieving new initiatives that will secure organization's competitiveness into the future.
In this course, you will learn how to prepare your organization for change at the individual, departmental, and organizational level by focusing on communication and the development of a change management plan.
How It Works
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Faculty Authors
Experienced upper manager and change agent with an outstanding track record of delivering organization development, business growth, and management at providers of technology, capital equipment, consumables, and support services at world-leading engineering focused organizations. Successfully managed the integration of teams following four acquisitions, performed a very successful business turn around, and drove seven years of dramatic growth at a start-up.
Formerly CEO of MiTeGen, a small bio-tech manufacturing company. Prior to that served as COO of AeroFarms LLC, a start-up company providing capital equipment for controlled environment agriculture; Business Manager of Service and Customer Support at Mettler Toledo Hi-Speed, North America’s leading manufacturer of checkweighers and integrated product inspection solutions; and as Vice President of Customer Support and Implementation at Moldflow Corp., the global leader in CAE for polymer processing, hot runner controllers, and related injection molding and production monitoring equipment.
Education
- Undergraduate Degrees, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
- MBA in International Management, Baker College
Dr. Mardelle McCuskey Shepley, B.A., M.Arch., M.A., D.Arch., is a professor at Cornell University and chair of the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis as well as Associate Director in the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures. She previously served as professor at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and was director of the TAMU Center for Health Systems & Design from 2004-2014. Dr. Shepley is a fellow in the American Institute of Architects and the American College of Healthcare Architects. She is LEED and EDAC certified.
Dr. Shepley has authored/co-authored six books, including “Healthcare Environments for Children and their Families” (1998), “A Practitioner’s Guide to Evidence-Based Design” (2008), “Design for Critical Care” (2009), “Health Facility Evaluation for Design Practitioners” (2010), “Design for Pediatric and Neonatal Critical Care” (2014), and “Design for Mental & Behavioral Health” (2017). Her papers have been published in Healthcare Management Review; Indoor and Built Environment; Journal of Perinatology; Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning; Health Environments Design & Research; World Health Design; Children, Youth & Environments; Journal of Housing for the Elderly; Journal of Environmental Psychology; General Hospital Psychiatry; Building Research Information; Evidence-Based Medicine; Journal of Applied Gerontology; Journal of Interior Design; Child Health Care; Senior Housing & Care; Environment & Behavior; and Perceptual & Motor Skills, among other peer-reviewed venues. To enhance the link between research and practice, Dr. Shepley worked 16 years in practice prior to joining TAMU and has regularly served as a consultant to architectural firms since 2000. She is founder of ART+Science, design research consultants.
Rohit Verma (Professor, Operations, Technology, and Information Management area; School of Hotel Administration; Cornell SC Johnson College of Business) is currently on leave from Cornell University and serving as the Founding Provost/Rector (Chief Academic Officer) of VinUniversity, Hanoi, Vietnam. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Verma was the Dean of External Relations for Cornell SC Johnson College of Business (May 2016 – June 2019), Singapore Tourism Board Distinguished Professor (January 2014 – June 2019), Executive Director of Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures (July 2015 – June 2018), and Executive Director of Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (July 2009 – June 2012).

Nick Fabrizio PhD, FACMPE, FACHE, is a principal consultant with the MGMA Health Care Consulting Group and serves on the faculty at Cornell University’s Sloan Program in Health Administration, where he has also served as the executive in residence. His primary expertise is in physician practice management and managing complex physician-hospital relationships.

Experienced upper manager and change agent with an outstanding track record of delivering organization development, business growth, and management at providers of technology, capital equipment, consumables, and support services at world-leading engineering focused organizations. Successfully managed the integration of teams following four acquisitions, performed a very successful business turn around, and drove seven years of dramatic growth at a start-up.
Formerly CEO of MiTeGen, a small bio-tech manufacturing company. Prior to that served as COO of AeroFarms LLC, a start-up company providing capital equipment for controlled environment agriculture; Business Manager of Service and Customer Support at Mettler Toledo Hi-Speed, North America’s leading manufacturer of checkweighers and integrated product inspection solutions; and as Vice President of Customer Support and Implementation at Moldflow Corp., the global leader in CAE for polymer processing, hot runner controllers, and related injection molding and production monitoring equipment.
Education
- Undergraduate Degrees, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
- MBA in International Management, Baker College

Dr. Mardelle McCuskey Shepley, B.A., M.Arch., M.A., D.Arch., is a professor at Cornell University and chair of the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis as well as Associate Director in the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures. She previously served as professor at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and was director of the TAMU Center for Health Systems & Design from 2004-2014. Dr. Shepley is a fellow in the American Institute of Architects and the American College of Healthcare Architects. She is LEED and EDAC certified.
Dr. Shepley has authored/co-authored six books, including “Healthcare Environments for Children and their Families” (1998), “A Practitioner’s Guide to Evidence-Based Design” (2008), “Design for Critical Care” (2009), “Health Facility Evaluation for Design Practitioners” (2010), “Design for Pediatric and Neonatal Critical Care” (2014), and “Design for Mental & Behavioral Health” (2017). Her papers have been published in Healthcare Management Review; Indoor and Built Environment; Journal of Perinatology; Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning; Health Environments Design & Research; World Health Design; Children, Youth & Environments; Journal of Housing for the Elderly; Journal of Environmental Psychology; General Hospital Psychiatry; Building Research Information; Evidence-Based Medicine; Journal of Applied Gerontology; Journal of Interior Design; Child Health Care; Senior Housing & Care; Environment & Behavior; and Perceptual & Motor Skills, among other peer-reviewed venues. To enhance the link between research and practice, Dr. Shepley worked 16 years in practice prior to joining TAMU and has regularly served as a consultant to architectural firms since 2000. She is founder of ART+Science, design research consultants.

Rohit Verma (Professor, Operations, Technology, and Information Management area; School of Hotel Administration; Cornell SC Johnson College of Business) is currently on leave from Cornell University and serving as the Founding Provost/Rector (Chief Academic Officer) of VinUniversity, Hanoi, Vietnam. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Verma was the Dean of External Relations for Cornell SC Johnson College of Business (May 2016 – June 2019), Singapore Tourism Board Distinguished Professor (January 2014 – June 2019), Executive Director of Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures (July 2015 – June 2018), and Executive Director of Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (July 2009 – June 2012).
Key Course Takeaways
- Assess and diagnose your existing organizational culture, vision, and shared values
- Determine your ideal state/culture to create a business strategy consistent with the organization’s core vision and values
- Use Excel to examine the process flow in your organization
- Create an action plan to improve decision-making at your organization
- Assess the quality of a healthcare organization
- Apply quality management approaches to improve quality at your organization
- Examine psychological factors that affect our relationship to the environment in senior living facilities
- Apply principles of environmental psychology to the design of senior living facilities

Download a Brochure
Not ready to enroll but want to learn more? Download the certificate brochure to review program details.
What You'll Earn
- Healthcare Facilities Planning and Design Certificate from Cornell University's Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
- 60 Professional Development Hours (6 CEUs)
- 0-10 Professional Development Units (PDUs) toward PMI recertification
- 0-10 Professional Development Credits (PDCs) toward SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP recertification
- 0-10 Credit hours towards HRCI recertification
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Who Should Enroll
- Chief executives
- Facility management staff
- Hospital and healthcare facility administrators
- Medical and non-medical personnel
“…The quality of certificate was above my expectations and I think it’s good value for money paid! After gaining the information available in the courses, I became more knowledgeable in different planning discussions especially evidence based designs! Knowledge is power!”
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Healthcare Facilities Planning and Design
Select Payment Method | Cost |
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$3,699 | |