Beth Israel plans $500M expansion

Execs at Boston teaching hospital Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have begun planning for a $500 million expansion, concerned that the hospital will run out of space within the next five years. The hospital has seen dramatic increases in patient volume in recent times, including a 53 percent jump in outpatient visits between 2002 and 2005. If the hospital's volume keeps growing at its current pace, it may need to add an additional 900,000 square feet, administrators said. Execs are considering several expansion scenarios, including moving all inpatient services to one campus and all outpatient care to another, in an effort to improve efficiency by cutting down on service duplication. Another involves reorganizing the hospital into a series of "disease centers" focused on specialties or disease states.

The move comes as part of a remarkable turnaround for Beth Israel. While the hospital was in difficult financial straits only a few years ago, posting a $25.5 million operating loss in fiscal 2002, it generated an operating surplus of $26.5 million in fiscal 2005, according to the Boston Business Journal.

Learn more about Beth Israel's plans, and Boston's hospital boom:
- read this piece from the Boston Business Journal

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