Continuing to build out its outpatient capabilities is a key part of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare's long-term plan, CEO Sam Hazen said at recent healthcare conferences.
The for-profit health system has an average of 13 outpatient facilities for each hospital, Mr. Hazen said at Morgan Stanley’s Global Healthcare Conference on Sept. 5. He said he thinks that average will grow to between 17 and 20 by the end of the decade.
Mr. Hazen said at the Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference on Sept. 5 that HCA has been particular about the portfolio of markets it serves.
"We think we have a unique portfolio of communities inside of HCA that are benefiting from some of the national migration that's taken place, to Texas, to Florida, to Tennessee, to South Carolina, to Utah," he said. "I can go down the list and pretty much all of our communities, I think, are benefitting from some of that and it's really given us an opportunity to invest further in our network model."
Mr. Hazen said at the Morgan Stanley conference that HCA wants "to extend the reach of our network for our patients, make it more convenient for them to start their process of care somewhere in the HCA system." He said its approach is to "take as many outpatient facilities as we possibly can and make it closer to the patient."
"That's convenient for the patient, different price points for the patient and so forth, very efficient for the patient, but for us as a system, what it does is it opens up the opportunity for us to interact with the patient upstream, and if they need acute care downstream, we can integrate them, hopefully by having the necessary programs, services or physicians in our network and receive them if they need acute care offerings," he said.