Building Healthcare Innovation & Design

Is the local, general hospital a thing of the past?

The local, general hospital has been a feature of thousands of towns and cities around the world for at least a century. The institutions are often much loved providers of care, comfort and reassurance for those in their communities. They are frequently the largest local employers and provide livelihoods for families. But healthcare, as we know, is changing rapidly. Not least, many economies are finding that local general hospitals are expensive, sometimes slow to change and don’t always deliver what patients want. The oft-cited need for ‘patient centered care’ can be difficult to achieve when the hospital is really what is at the center of healthcare planning.