As 2025 closes, hospital leaders are preparing for another year of capital decisions. Capital budgets remain tight, equipment needs continue to grow, and infrastructure challenges are increasing. Stretching capital in 2026 is not only a goal. It is a necessity.
But stretching capital does not mean holding onto everything longer. It means knowing what can stay in service safely, what should be replaced, and how to direct limited dollars toward the assets that move operations forward.
Below is what the latest research shows, why it matters, and how a strategic approach can protect both performance and budgets.
Hospitals across the country are entering 2026 with similar challenges.
• 80 percent of hospital operations leaders list aging infrastructure as their top concern, and 58 percent report funding or staffing as major challenges.
Source: HFMA and AHA 2024 Operations Survey
• More than 50 percent of medical devices in many systems continue operating beyond their intended service life.
Source: HFMM, Managing capital assets in health care facilities
• Unplanned clinical equipment downtime can cost hospitals up to 10,000 dollars per hour.
Source: Censinet and biomedical operational studies
• Lifecycle and maintenance activity can represent up to 25 percent of total capital expense, and up to 1.75 percent of operating expense.
Source: TRIMEDX
These pressures set the stage for why smarter replacement timing is becoming essential.
Capital planning is no longer only about replacing aging equipment. It is about making decisions the entire organization can support in a year when resources are stretched.
Every early replacement means capital dollars are pulled away from more urgent needs. With budgets tightening, premature replacement directly reduces a hospital’s ability to invest in high-priority assets.
A single unplanned failure can trigger:
Downtime costs that were once inconvenient are now financially material.
Finance wants predictability.
Supply Chain wants systemwide visibility.
Clinical Engineering wants uptime.
Operations wants throughput.
Without shared data, these perspectives collide instead of working together.
Hospitals that stretch capital safely:
In a thin-margin environment, capital efficiency often determines whether a system can fund modernization or must defer it.
Hospitals typically realize ROI through:
The ROI is not theoretical. It shows up in avoided spend, improved uptime, and smoother budgeting cycles.
Here are the practices that consistently help systems stretch capital without increasing risk:
Combine asset age, utilization, service history, downtime records, warranty details, and contract terms into one view.
Watch for:
Some categories can safely run longer. Others cannot.
General biomedical devices and monitoring equipment often have longer safe lifespans when maintained well.
Use connected data to direct dollars toward:
This ensures that capital dollars support operational and clinical goals.
Capital Cycle Management (CCM®) brings asset, contract, and utilization data into one place, giving stakeholders the shared, accurate foundation needed to make collaborative decisions.
With CCM®, teams can:
Hospitals using CCM® discover more value inside their existing fleet than expected, especially as they plan for 2026.
If your team is preparing for next year’s capital cycle and wants a more predictable, financially grounded approach to equipment lifespan and replacement timing:
See how CCM® supports capital strategy and helps hospitals stretch their capital safely.
We can walk through examples, data flows, and the frameworks other systems use to guide 2026 planning. Book a call a today.