Healthcare is one of the backbones of the Pittsburgh economy and a solid foundation of the Pittsburgh construction market. Nearly $7 billion has been invested in new hospitals, clinics, and major renovations in metropolitan Pittsburgh during the past decade. The Master Builder’s Association interviewed DRAW Collective’s Elizabeth Cronin as part of the Healthcare Market Update feature in Breaking Ground Magazine. Check out the excerpt below.
“The trend is towards more regional care hubs or outpatient care facilities that put multifaceted services in one building,” says Elizabeth Cronin, senior associate at DRAW Collective. “These outpatient facilities will have several physician practices, outpatient imaging services, physical therapy, and same day surgery services so that a patient can go to a central hub for all sorts of well care. The goal is to put specialists in one location rather than sending a patient to multiple facilities.”
Cronin noted that the topic was widely discussed at the April Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania’s annual summit in Harrisburg. Administrators spoke of the need to consolidate resources into a single location to improve the quality of care delivered in small towns and rural areas.
“It’s more a consolidation of resources rather than drawing away from hospitals. Hospitals aren’t going away but, for things that can be done on an outpatient basis, it makes sense to try to consolidate those resources in one building so that both the patient and the provider are not working with multiple facilities,” Cronin says. “It’s better not to have patients and providers traveling all over an extended area.”