As patients and their families increasingly travel for medical treatment, property developers are seizing on the opportunity to build hotels near hospitals, many of which exist in hotel-deficient areas, according to The New York Times.
"Medical procedures that used to require multiple stays are now being done in much less invasive ways, and they require a lot less recovery than they used to," said Daniel C. Peek, a senior managing director at commercial real estate firm HFF, according to the report. "And if a recovering patient needs to go back just twice a week, it's probably better for the hospitals if they stay in a hotel."
For example, 54-room Edge Hotel, which cost $20 million to develop and is operated by Trust Hospitality, opened in 2015 in upper Manhattan a block and a half from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Its proximity to the hospital makes it ideal quarters for visiting patients and families, medical students, professors and pharmaceutical sales reps. The hotel has maintained an occupancy rate of more than 80 percent and about 90 percent of those guests have ties to the hospital, The New York Time reports.
Because the hotel caters to many patients and families, its staff is cognizant of the need to treat guest with extra sensitivity. Ari Sherizen, operating partner of developer Edge Property Group, told The New York Times he saw a guest sobbing because her son had died. The receptionist reacted by giving her a hug.
"Our staff has to be really attuned to what people are going through emotionally," said Mr. Sherizen, according to the report.