Urgent Care Continues to Boost the U.S. Construction Industry

A new survey of hospital construction projects points to the ongoing growth of urgent care as one driver of a construction boom within the healthcare industry. In fact, urgent care, outpatient facilities, and medical specialty complexes are the key contributors to significant increases in new construction. Health Facilities Management’s 2016 Hospital Construction Survey indicated the boom is on track to continue, too; 35% of respondents said they expect to have a medical office project in the works over the next 3 years; 21% said they foresee construction of an ambulatory care facility. Health Facilities Management attributes the growth to the flood of new patients entering the market thanks to the Affordable Care Act and to the fact that patients in the “millennial” age group (roughly, those born between 1982 and 2004) gravitate toward walk-in care as opposed to traditional primary care relationships.