Bigger is better, right? Not necessarily. In the fast-paced world of hospitals and patient care, some facilities are choosing to build smaller facilities. These facilities called micro-hospitals are aiming to serve specific communities in affordable ways with small-footprint hospitals.
What are Micro-Hospitals?
Micro-hospitals are small care facilities that provide services such as an emergency department, pharmacy, lab, and imaging. These facilities are giving patients other options instead of potentially waiting in long lines at the emergency department.
How They Provide Better Patient Care
Micro-hospitals, as recently discussed in Healthcare Financial Management’s November 2016 issue, strives to provide convenience and local care to specific communities. These care facilities are growing in popularity throughout the country, especially in the West and Southwest. Their function is to supplement larger-scale hospitals. Micro-hospitals typically only house 8 to 10 inpatient beds, with a similar number of emergency, triage, primary, and specialty care rooms. Hospital stays covering more than two days are transferred to nearby traditional higher-volume hospitals.
The point of these small hospitals, then, is to provide convenience and greater accesses to comprehensive medical services to communities lacking a larger hospital nearby.
JP Cullen’s Healthcare Division has worked on hospital renovations, additions, and new construction across Wisconsin, and understands the importance of hospitals that serve their direct community. If the shift to building micro-hospitals comes to the Midwest, we’ll be ready to help hospitals and communities take the next steps.
Check out our Healthcare page to see what work we’ve done!
