Carolan and his panelists will explore how the continuum is evolving and how both the provider and real estate communities need to respond. “The hospital of tomorrow will be for the critically ill—not for the elderly,” he says. “People are no longer going to the hospital to die; they're going in for an acute episode. Everything else can be done in ambulatory settings, via a same-day surgery center.”

Urgent care facilities, Carolan says, “are the wave of the future. The key is whether they're affiliated with a system. If they're freestanding independent, that's fine for the Millennials, who don't need that continuum of care. But if I go to Walgreens and get my finger stitched up, I want my primary care doctor to know it.”

Along with changing demographics and evolving technology, the Affordable Care Act has also played a role in transforming the continuum of care. With President-elect Donald Trump's nomination this week of Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the long-term future of the ACA appears uncertain, perhaps now more than ever. Price, says Carolan, is “100% opposed to the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act will be going away; the question is whether it's replaced with something similar.”

Carolan says the ACA's future is likely to come up at “every panel” throughout RealShare Healthcare Real Estate, including the one he'll be moderating. “It's just a very appropriate time to discuss it,” he says.

In order to meet the needs and demands of the changing healthcare industry, real estate professionals need to adapt their strategies to new circumstances. Join us at RealShare Healthcare Real Estate on Dec. 7 and 8 for insights on succeeding in both the right markets and product types as well as navigating and finding opportunities in the more challenging ones. Learn more.

TUCSON, AZ—“You go back 10 years, and the first thing I would check every morning when I went to the hospital was the bed census,” Neil Carolan, who came to Rendina Healthcare Real Estate from a healthcare administrative background, tells GlobeSt.com. “Every census was incredibly important; it was looked at for our financials. I'd want the number to be very high, because it meant our hospital was full and maybe we were making money. Today, I would want that census to be as low as possible.”

Now an SVP for business development and leasing with Rendina, Carolan elaborates on why a lower occupancy number is preferable today for a healthcare system. “They don't need to be there now, and my return on investment is better in an ambulatory setting, because the technology has improved to the point where treatment that would have hospitalized patients years ago can now be done on an outpatient basis,” he says.

The changing attitude toward having as many hospital beds filled as possible is just one of the ways in healthcare—and, therefore, the real estate in which that care is provided—has evolved and will continue to evolve. Carolan and a panel comprised of providers and developers will explore the evolution of the continuum of care in the “Healthcare Makes a Change of Venue” discussion at next week's RealShare Healthcare Real Estate conference. It's set for Wednesday, Dec. 7 and Thursday, Dec. 8 at the JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, AZ

“When we talk about continuum of care, we talk about the alternatives we're developing as the technology continues to progress and as the economy continues to have an impact on healthcare,” explains Carolan. For example, a medical office building going up 15 years ago would have been limited to doctors' offices occupied by small groups of physicians. More recently, he says, “the last MOB I had built before I left healthcare had a hospital-owned lab, a hospital-owned imaging center and employed doctors, as opposed to the old doc-in-a-box model. The whole continuum is changing.”

Carolan and his panelists will explore how the continuum is evolving and how both the provider and real estate communities need to respond. “The hospital of tomorrow will be for the critically ill—not for the elderly,” he says. “People are no longer going to the hospital to die; they're going in for an acute episode. Everything else can be done in ambulatory settings, via a same-day surgery center.”

Urgent care facilities, Carolan says, “are the wave of the future. The key is whether they're affiliated with a system. If they're freestanding independent, that's fine for the Millennials, who don't need that continuum of care. But if I go to Walgreens and get my finger stitched up, I want my primary care doctor to know it.”

Along with changing demographics and evolving technology, the Affordable Care Act has also played a role in transforming the continuum of care. With President-elect Donald Trump's nomination this week of Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the long-term future of the ACA appears uncertain, perhaps now more than ever. Price, says Carolan, is “100% opposed to the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act will be going away; the question is whether it's replaced with something similar.”

Carolan says the ACA's future is likely to come up at “every panel” throughout RealShare Healthcare Real Estate, including the one he'll be moderating. “It's just a very appropriate time to discuss it,” he says.

In order to meet the needs and demands of the changing healthcare industry, real estate professionals need to adapt their strategies to new circumstances. Join us at RealShare Healthcare Real Estate on Dec. 7 and 8 for insights on succeeding in both the right markets and product types as well as navigating and finding opportunities in the more challenging ones. Learn more.