Nearly all of the 70 physician-owned hospitals polled by the advocacy group Physician Hospitals of America want to upgrade their infrastructures immediately (55%) or within the next 5 years (35%), but are prohibited from doing so by 2010's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which bans existing physician-owned hospitals from expanding and bars new facilities from being built.
Facility expansions would result in $450 million spent on new construction and 1,575 skilled positions added to the healthcare job market, says the PHA. If those projections were extended to the nation's estimated 265 physician-owned hospitals, adds the PHA, the potential economic impact would balloon to $1.8 billion in construction spending and 6,300 additional healthcare jobs.
Physician-owned hospitals deliver high-quality care, a value not seen in facts and figures, says PHA President Michael Russell, MD. But, he says, the numbers do illustrate "the enormous, positive effects that expansion of the POH industry could have on the economy and job market on a local level."
Daniel Cook
