Are microhospitals the future of mid-acuity care?
Top of the Week
Your emergency department is filled with respiratory patients. Medical patients have been boarding for hours and psychiatric patients for days. All that congestion has led to worsening patient experience. Mid-acuity patients don’t want to be there anymore.
Enter the micro-hospital. Two companies, Nutex Health and Emerus, have led a rapid expansion of the micro-hospital model. Becker’s defines a micro-hospital as “independently licensed facilities with acuity comparable to a community hospital but at a fraction of the size.” By building more emergency and short-term acute admission capacity, these hospitals can deliver efficient care, high-quality care with a focus on mid-acuity patients.
Nutex, founded by a group of emergency physicians, has evolved from building mostly freestanding ERs to micro-hospitals. Regulations on freestandings are more stringent than for micro-hospitals in most states. Nutex went public in 2022 and is currently valued at $1.2b. Nutex plans to build twenty more facilities over the next two years.
Emerus, the nation’s first and largest operator of micro-hospitals, partners with health systems to develop networks of micro-hospitals. Partner health systems include Baylor Scott & White, Dignity Health, and Multicare.
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