The projected growth area in the era of healthcare reform points increasingly toward ambulatory care facilities, such as surgery centers, cancer centers, imaging centers, neighborhood-focused community clinics and medical office buildings, according to an article on the Medical Construction & Design magazine website.
According to the article, ambulatory facilities offer cost benefits because building codes and infrastructure requirements are less restrictive than acute care hospitals, making outpatient facilities more affordable to construct and maintain.
Community clinics, which are absorbing newly insured patients, are also less expensive to build due to fewer code restrictions and less complex infrastructure.
The growth in ambulatory care facilities is also being driven by advances in minimally invasive procedures and administrative technologies.
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