- Hospitals continue to prioritize outpatient growth, with 96% of hospital leaders surveyed planning to maintain or increase investment in ASCs. A majority of the respondents described their planned pace as aggressive or moderate. 89% of the respondents have at lease one ASC owned or under development and 53% report five or more.
- Lee Health is pursuing a long-term growth strategy to expand from a $4B to a $6B system, by investing in ambulatory care and investing in physician and outpatient partnerships. The health system recently converted from a public entity to a private nonprofit to give it greater flexibility to expand beyond Lee County.
- MD Anderson Cancer Center unveiled plans for a $3.4B expansion of its Houston campus. The expansion includes a 25-story Inspiration Tower that provides inpatient and outpatient services, and Prism, which will house radiation therapy and imaging services. The expansion will allow MD Anderson to increase it capacity to 250,000 patients annually. The projects are being funded by MD Anderson, University of Texas and from philanthropic gifts.
- CommonSpirit Health announced plans for significant investments in its Colorado Springs, CO, hospital facilities, including projects at Penrose Hospital and St. Francis Hospital that involve adding more beds, adding new campus infrastructure and a new medical outpatient building.
- The American Medical Association adopted a policy supporting limits on use of the terms “emergency department” and “emergency room,” reserving those designations for facilities that meet EMTALA requirements and provide 24/7 in-person physician coverage. For freestanding EDs, the policy could affect facility naming, advertising, signage and potential billing classification.
- Lurie Children’s received Illinois approval for a second pediatric hospital, advancing a major expansion of the Chicago-based health system’s geographic footprint. The new hospital will be located in the Chicago suburb of Downer’s Grove, Illinois.
- Nashville General Hospital’s proposed relocation took another step forward as the Mayor created a Vision Committee to explore the potential location for a replacement hospital.
- Shriners Children’s broke ground on a $153M research institute in Atlanta, expanding the pediatric health system’s research real estate footprint. The new facility will house biomechanics and tissue engineering labs, augmented reality development spaces and facilities for cellular and molecular research.
- Sutter Health is abandoning plans for a new hospital at Emery Yards in Emeryville, CA, after spending $450M on the project based on regulatory uncertainty. Sutter is planning on pursuing outpatient development options on the site.
- A recent article showcases how health systems are increasingly developing free-standing emergency departments in unconventional retail settings, including strip malls, as providers seek smaller, more accessible facilities closer to patients.
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- Andrew Dick at adick@hallrender.com or (317) 977-1491;
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