PHOENIX—More than 400 congregated at Scottsdale's Phoenician for the 2014 RealShare Healthcare Real Estate conference this week. Neil Carolan, senior vice president of business development for Rendina Companies moderated the panel, Provider Update: Examining the Evolving Needs of Hospital Systems. Carolan spent more than 25 years in hospital operations and has been in the developer world for one year. Joining him as panelists are Ross Caulum, assistant vice president of corporate real estate, Scripps Health;Winnie Fritz, senior vice president of clinical operations and services, HCCS Management of Nashville; and Manfred Steiner, managing director and principal, BGL Healthcare Transaction Advisors.

The panel agreed that more regulation is changing the healthcare platform and driving patients to more ambulatory settings.

“As far as inpatient to outpatient, we're seeing 10% less in hospitals,” said Caulum. “The trend is for care to be delivered in an ambulatory environment. We have to stay relevant because this is also consumer driven.”