‘The Whole Continuum is Changing’

Carolan says the hospital of tomorrow “will be for the critically ill.”

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.