By Healthcare Facilities Today

The solution to hospital expense and overcrowding is to send non-emergency patients to health clinics, according to an article on the Visalia Times-Delta website.

Because of this, clinic construction is booming across Tulare County, Calif., with Kaweah Delta Medical Center, Tulare Regional Medical Center and Family Healthcare Network all involved in multiple building projects, the article said.

The bottom line is that emergency rooms and hospital rooms are expensive medical real estate, Tulare Regional’s outgoing CEO Shawn Bolouki said in the article. A treatment that may cost $150 at a clinic could balloon to $1,000 in a hospital, simply because emergency room resources are so much more valuable.

“A clinic can do the same thing with greater customer satisfaction at a fraction of the cost,” Bolouki said.

Read the article and watch the accompanying video.