The number of microhospitals is predicted to increase between now and 2024 according to a study from Goldstein Research, Whatech reports. Health systems are using the facilities to expand their reach into desirable markets in urban and suburban areas that aren’t large enough to require a full-size hospital.
By 2024, the compound annual growth rate is expected to increase by 6.1 percent, Whatech reports. North Texas is no stranger to the growth of microhospitals, as we wrote earlier this year.
“Especially small community hospitals, or “microhospitals,” as many have taken to calling them, are a growing trend. As outpatient revenue comprises a larger portion of the equation for hospital systems, and as technology enables more and more home health care, some healthcare leaders say smaller operations make sense in the right communities. The subjective cutoff generally falls somewhere between five and 15 hospital beds.”
Microhospitals usually serve acute needs rather than long term, focusing on ambulatory or emergency services rather than complicated surgeries. The usually are less than 50,000 square feet, and cost about a third of the price of a traditional hospital, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. They are a step up in terms of beds and the ability to plug the patient into a network of care from many of the freestanding ERs that have popped up in the last few years.
In North Texas, Baylor Scott and White enlisted the assistance of Emerus, a leading microhospital developer to help run its eight smaller facilities, while Christus Health in Irving has chosen to develop and run their own microhospitals, according to Becker’s.
Read more about the prospective growth of microhospitals here.
