Engineering Inc. - Spring 2020 - 12

THEPRIVATESIDE

Trends in Health Care Facilities,
Population, and Employment Take on More
Significance During Pandemic
By Erin McLaughlin

A

s the COVID-19 pandemic grips the
United States and the world, it is interesting to look at recent health care and life
science trends, how these have impacted
this pivotal moment, and what the future
may bring.

OUTPATIENT-FOCUSED FACILITY GROWTH

Health care facilities have continued their dramatic
decentralization away from hospitals and inpatient
settings. According to Statista/American Hospital
Association, there were 5,534 hospitals in the United
States in 2016, down from 7,156 in 1975. As the
number of hospitals declines, there has been a
dramatic surge in outpatient facilities (see Number of
Urgent Care Centers), which provide a wider variety of
treatments than ever before.
These properties include urgent care centers
(UCCs), medical clinics with extended hours that
are equipped to diagnose and treat a broad number
of non-life- or limb-threatening conditions. UCCs
partially fill a gap created by the nationwide closure of
many rural hospitals. UCCs experienced an 18 times
increase from 2006-2016, according to a March 2018
FAIR Health white paper, "FH Healthcare Indicators
and FH Medical Price Index."
The strong growth of UCCs is expected to continue,

Number of Urgent Care Centers
10,000
9,000

10%

8,000

12%

7,000
6,000

5%

5,000

9%

8%

5%

HEALTH CARE & S+T SECTORS
CONSIDERED RECESSION RESISTANT

Health care and social assistance jobs grew 23 percent
from 2008-2018, and the medical sector is the largest
employer in the U.S., at 13.4 percent of the workforce,
according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Life
sciences employment-which includes those in the
biotechnology, pharmaceutical, biomedical device,
genetics/genomes, and research and development
(R&D) sectors-has consistently outpaced total
employment growth since 2000 (see Life Sciences
Employment Growth by Decade).
These sectors are considered relatively "recession
resistant" by many economists during a normal recession (not triggered by a pandemic), and that theory is
backed up by employment changes during the recent
recessions of 2001 and 2007-2009 (see Employment

Life Sciences Employment
Growth by Decade

3,000

2.5%

2,000

1.5%

1,000

0.5%
2014

2015

# of Urgent Care Centers

2016

2017

2018

2019

SPRING 2020

1.8%

1.9%

1.6%

0.2%

-0.5%

-0.1%

1990-2000

2000-2010

2010-2019

YOY Growth (%)
Source: Urgent Care Association

ENGINEERING INC.

5.1%

4.5%
3.5%

2013

Total Employment
Life Sciences

5.5%

4,000

0

12

as government-allowed health care reimbursements
continue to favor outpatient over inpatient treatments.
Besides UCCs, ambulatory surgery centers grew 80
percent between 2000 and 2014, according to the
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, a nonpartisan legislative branch agency. These centers average
15,500 square feet, housing multiple operating rooms.
Due to the focus on growth to outpatient facilities,
traditional hospitals that have the beds, equipment,
and staff to treat critical patients for one or more
nights have declined, and this trend may not serve
communities as well as once thought.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Cushman & Wakefield
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