At a time when dwindling reimbursements are on the mind of every hospital executive, finding financially viable solutions is a must to keep ailing health systems solvent. One such solution is called the “medical mall” and health systems that have incorporated one tend to find the results favoring.
What Are They?
Similar to what they sound like, medical malls are annexed medical facilities that provide patients a one-stop outpatient treatment experience. Be it dental, primary care, pharmacy or same-day surgery visits, medical malls are the Wal-Marts of the healthcare field. Often times they are constructed from bankrupt hospitals, abandoned malls and similar sites.
Why Are They Advantageous?
- Not only do medical malls help curb costs by focusing efforts around an outpatient model, but they create a revenue stream by offering new opportunities.
- One-stop healthcare for patients
- Allow physicians to increase their services
- Fosters hospitals’ outpatient market share
- Enables health systems to better serve the community
- Good source of revenue for counties that have too many hospital beds
Case Studies:
- Even before 90,000 square-foot Shelby Macomb Medical Mall in Michigan was built, 90% was leased. Hospital officials saw it as a way to conveniently combine specialties in one location. The medical mall was well received among the community, especially by the older population.
- While not an exact medical mall, Vanderbilt Health signed a 12-year lease for almost half of 850,000 square feet of an indoor shopping area. This venture creates opportunities for patients, store owners, and hospital executives. People are more likely to go to outpatient clinics in shopping areas for minor symptoms than emergency room where waiting lines and tensions are high. Parents can drop off their kids at a physician specialist while shopping around in the same vicinity.
As the need for ambulatory and diagnostic services, out reach health services to growing and under served populations, such as baby boomers, and convenient patient care continues to grow, I expect the demand for medical malls will as well.
James Ellis, CEO, Health Care Realty Development Company, is a nationally recognized successful real estate investor and developer of medical office properties with a comprehensive knowledge of sophisticated real estate transactions, cost effective designs, and efficient property management.
Aaron Razavi is Associate Marketing Director at Health Care Realty Development.
Visit their blog at http://www.hcrealty.com/medicalrealestatedevelopment/