Hospital construction continues to boom

Hospital construction is continuing its merry boom.

Revista, the Maryland-based healthcare real estate research firm, reports that there are currently hospital construction projects underway valued at $97 billion.There are currently some 1,340 projects underway or in the planning stage, Healthcare Finance News has reported. They include 150 brand new hospitals or replacement facilities.

Hospital construction has been booming nationwide for several years. The aging U.S. population and an influx of money from the Affordable Care Act are two factors driving construction projects. Some recent projects, such as a new facility for Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, were driven in part by a demand for luxury-level amenities.

Among the largest projects, five are valued at least $1 billion. They include the Tisch Hospital expansion in New York City, a 374-bed, 800,000 square-foot expansion of the NYU Langone Medical Center, valued at $2 billion. Another large project is the 700-bed University of Pennsylvania Hospital, valued at $1.5 billion.

Despite these East Coast projects, Texas and California actually has the most activity. Pending construction in the Golden State is currently valued at nearly $12 billion, spurred in part by seismic regulations required to protect patients in the event of a major earthquake. Both Loma Linda University Medical Center and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto are both undertaking projects valued at more than $1 billion apiece.

"All of these hospitals have to meet certain standards," Revista Principal Hilda Flower Martin told Healthcare Finance News. "They're so expensive to renovate to these standards they just rebuild."

However, some other construction projects are expensive due to cost overruns. That includes Long Island College Hospital outside of New York City, and the Veterans Affairs hospital in Denver.

To learn more:
- read the Healthcare Finance News article