Melanie Evans writes about hospitals losing patients for ambulatory care or outpatient clinics. It’s not economically sustainable for hospitals to consistently have vacant beds, and new reimbursement policies are incentivizing health systems to keep patients out of hospitals. Staffing becomes an issue, because hospitals don’t want to staff nurses to occupy an empty nursing unit. Huge adjustments are being made to the landscape of healthcare facilities. In Lakewood, Ohio they are closing their 200 bed hospital, which is operating at about 50% occupancy . The hospital is one of three within a 7 mile radius. The city has announced that it’ll replace the hospital $34 million ambulatory health center and emergency department. The idea is that this model will be more sustainable, because it’ll cover patients struggling with diabetes, heart disease and mental illness. None of these chronic diseases would call for bed-side care to fix.
Overall, The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has reported 27 hospitals closing down in 2014. The changing landscape is forcing hospitals to get creative with the re-purposing of their space. Some examples of re-purposing include signing leases with hospice providers to use their extra space. There have also been instances where hotel operators have signed leases to convert med/surg units into hotel rooms. Money is moving towards ambulatory care facilities, hiring physicians, and telehealth. The challenge for hospitals along with architects, becomes trying to stay ahead of these changes to make efficient decisions for hospital spaces. The movement is a positive one for the care and treatment of patients, hospitals just need to adapt. With the theme of preventative care trending, the community outreach programs that we learned about at Mt. Sinai may be able to utilize the extra hospital space. I think it would be fitting for the future of hospitals to combine community centers to eventually change the thought on hospitals simply being a place for the sick.
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