In recent times, low interest rates have encouraged hospitals to rebuild aging facilities and expand into into affluent exurban areas. Hospitals have spent an eye-popping $100 billion to create new buildings or expand old ones between 2000 and 2005--nearly double the amount spent during the previous five years. The new, modern hospitals feature electronic medical records, private rooms and wireless networking.
But this development boom hasn't been distributed evenly. While sleek new hospital buildings are popping up like mushrooms in prosperous suburbs, urban hospitals are in bad shape, with many on the verge of bankruptcy, closing or forced into some form of receivership. One study published by The New England Journal of Medicine found that 16 percent of city-based public hospitals were lost between 1996 and 2002. However, as hospital systems attempt to expand to profitable suburban populations--and convert inner city hospitals to new uses--they're beginning to face opposition from community activists, concerned that the slick suburban facilities will drain resources away from desperately needed inner-city hospitals.
Get more background on this issue:
- read this Wall Street Journal article (sub. req.)
PLUS: Stanford, Lucile Packard Hospitals plan $1.1 billion rebuild. Article