The value of hospitals in the local community extends far beyond the excellent care provided to include the economic benefit these institutions offer to their communities. They ensure the stability of surrounding neighborhoods by offering a wide range of good paying jobs and by supporting local businesses.
As we emerge from the economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals have played and will continue to play an important role in a community’s economic recovery. Hospitals draw from their local communities for their workforce needs and the many goods and services needed to run a hospital each day. And, by natural proximity, the hospital workers, and visitors too, support local restaurants, dry cleaners, banks, grocery stores, hair salons and related service providers.
In many communities, the hospital is the largest employer.
The Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) set out to find out just how valuable hospitals are to their communities and used economic analysis tools to quantify the economic and community benefit of hospitals. Statewide it found that economic activity generated by hospitals through jobs and the purchase of goods and services makes up 10.1 percent of the state’s entire gross domestic product (GDP). GDP is the indicator of a region’s or country’s economic growth and prosperity. Hospitals in the Hudson Valley and Long Island regions pumped $33.3 billion into their local economies, generated 160,000 jobs, and provided more than $2 billion in community benefits and investments. The list goes on and on.
Hospitals are the foundation for local economic recovery.