Healthy City: Inside New York City's Hospital Building Boom

Introduction

In order to adapt to a rapidly evolving healthcare market, virtually all of New York City's large hospital systems are making major capital investments, not only to modernize their facilities but to transform how they deliver healthcare. Hospitals are consolidating into broadly-based healthcare systems and investing in smaller healthcare facilities and community hospitals, reaching beyond traditional boundaries into neighboring communities to provide an increasingly wider range of services. At the same time, hospitals are spending heavily to renew their main campuses in order to compete with other leading institutions.

These efforts are clearly paying off: New York City hospitals are now recognized as among the best in the country overall. The most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings included three private New York City institutions among the 15 best hospitals in the nation, a first, and more than any other city.

To better understand this hospital building boom, the New York Building Congress conducted an extensive survey of New York City hospitals and interviews with healthcare construction professionals.

The survey results, along with a Building Congress analysis of other available data sources, demonstrate that the design and construction of new and renovated healthcare facilities has been an important factor in strengthening New York City's position as a national leader in service quality and undergirding the industry's prominent place in the City's economy.