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Old 08-10-2019, 11:44 AM
 
Location: Tucson/Nogales
23,080 posts, read 28,804,581 times
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I live just catty corner from the sprawling Tucson Medical Center, and across the street is 5-6 blocks of medical facilities in the Tucson Medical Park, and nearby they're building a massive Pima Medical Campus. And we have a few more hospitals here in Tucson and? I'm mystified as to how these places can keep busy, in a city of 450,000, metro area of 1 million, and the elderly snowbirds are here only during the winter.

I rarely see a Doctor, so that may explain the mystification.

I do see there's a number of For Lease signs in the Tucson Medical Park.

And add to this, the proximity to Mexico, 65 miles away, medical services available there.

Aren't there times they sit around twiddling their thumbs? Do any of these places ever go belly up? Are some of these employees on-call when needed?
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Old 08-10-2019, 02:20 PM
 
Location: Texas
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I don't know enough about Tucson to comment on the specifics of that community, but there are indeed a lot of areas that have an over abundance of licensed beds. Usually, the average daily census in many of these hospitals runs far below actual capacity, and the administrators have gotten pretty good at estimating the ideal staffing needed to provide services based on when they know census will wax and wane. You also have to consider the fact that a small to mid sized metro area is often servicing a much larger catchment area, sometimes a radius of 80-100 miles or more. But yes, sometimes, there are too many hospitals in certain areas, and not enough in more rural locations, which can be a challenge.
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Old 08-10-2019, 06:39 PM
 
Location: Eastern Tennessee
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Medical Facilities, Where Do They Get All Their Patients?

Sick people? Just guessing.
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Old 08-10-2019, 07:00 PM
 
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Hospitals here typically run at approx. 90% capacity as do most in the industry (I’m in healthcare IT and see the statistics). But they probably have a combo of doctors’ offices as well as emergency and urgent care and inpatient beds. Even if snowbirds only come in the winter they have to plan ahead to have a bed for that population since they tend to be sicker than most.
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Old 08-10-2019, 07:04 PM
 
1,210 posts, read 878,465 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tijlover View Post
Aren't there times they sit around twiddling their thumbs?
Sure, while the rest of us are spending 90 minutes in waiting rooms because the doctor double books.

Here's your typical phone machine message at a doctor's office:
"Hello, You've reached Dr. Golf N. Cheatinonspouse's office. If this is an emergency call 911 now [now they've released themselves from any liability]. Our normal office hours are Mondays through Thursdays 9 to 4 with lunch from 11 to 1. Friday's 9 to 11. We are taking our next appointments [three months from now] in {now + three months}. Our latest appointment is 3PM. If arriving for your first appointment, please arrive 45 minutes early [so you can fill out 19 forms which release us from any liability and guarantee we'll get paid. The forms always ask both your age and your DOB because we're too stupid to figure out your age from your DOB. We also need your SSN nine times because we couldn't care less about your risk of identity theft. Finally we ask the same information each time on each form because we are still using 1950s technology in this office and we can't transfer information from one form onto multiple forms - so you need to enter the same information over and over and over.]. If you can't make an appointment please let us know three weeks in advance or else we will charge you $150. [We double book so there's a 95% chance you'll be sitting around in the waiting room for 90 minutes.]"
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Old 08-10-2019, 08:00 PM
 
17,352 posts, read 13,084,517 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SoCal_Native View Post
Sure, while the rest of us are spending 90 minutes in waiting rooms because the doctor double books.

Here's your typical phone machine message at a doctor's office:
"Hello, You've reached Dr. Golf N. Cheatinonspouse's office. If this is an emergency call 911 now [now they've released themselves from any liability]. Our normal office hours are Mondays through Thursdays 9 to 4 with lunch from 11 to 1. Friday's 9 to 11. We are taking our next appointments [three months from now] in {now + three months}. Our latest appointment is 3PM. If arriving for your first appointment, please arrive 45 minutes early [so you can fill out 19 forms which release us from any liability and guarantee we'll get paid. The forms always ask both your age and your DOB because we're too stupid to figure out your age from your DOB. We also need your SSN nine times because we couldn't care less about your risk of identity theft. Finally we ask the same information each time on each form because we are still using 1950s technology in this office and we can't transfer information from one form onto multiple forms - so you need to enter the same information over and over and over.]. If you can't make an appointment please let us know three weeks in advance or else we will charge you $150. [We double book so there's a 95% chance you'll be sitting around in the waiting room for 90 minutes.]"

Wow! A very inspirational post. I'm touched



Just think where you might be without the Drs and "Medical Facilities"
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Old 08-11-2019, 01:03 AM
 
Location: Tucson/Nogales
23,080 posts, read 28,804,581 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by grampaTom View Post
Medical Facilities, Where Do They Get All Their Patients?

Sick people? Just guessing.
I'm guessing more and more people are taking better care of themselves, thus less need for these facilities?
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Old 08-11-2019, 08:04 AM
 
Location: SW Florida
15,199 posts, read 10,179,316 times
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I live in SW Florida, another booming snowbird area. During our "winter" it is sometimes impossible to get a hospital room. People are in hospital beds in the hall or they stay in the E.R. longer than necessary because there are no beds available. My city has a population of around 150,000 with one inadequate hospital. Granted right over the bridge is Fort Myers which has three hospitals (all much nicer by the way) but they have the same issue during tourist/snowbird season. With a lot of retirees, our hospitals stay pretty much at capacity.
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Old 08-11-2019, 08:47 AM
 
9,952 posts, read 6,583,186 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tijlover View Post
I'm guessing more and more people are taking better care of themselves, thus less need for these facilities?
The aging population is growing, so the need for these facilities will only continue to grow as time progresses. Plus, the population is only getting more and more obese... with that comes more obesity-related illnesses.
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Old 08-11-2019, 10:35 AM
 
5,427 posts, read 4,411,233 times
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Tucson has been growing and attracts a lot of age 60+ retirees who lived in California, the Midwest, or the Northeast during their prime working years. Tucson Medical Center was built decades ago, when Tucson's population was much smaller. Some of the new medical facilities are meant to keep pace with the population growth.

As a whole, the population is aging. People 55+ comprise a larger percentage of the population than they have in the past. The Baby Boomers are a large generation. Women in their parents' generation, the GI Generation, tended to have more kids on average than the Baby Boomers did. Generation X (birth years 1965-1980) is ending the fertile years (defined by the Census Bureau as 15-44) and X'ers had less kids per capita than Boomers. The Millennials (1981-1996) are off to a slow start on fertility rates are likely to lag even the X'ers in total fertility when it is all said and done.

The Western medical system does a good job of treating trauma incidents. For 55+, this means treatment of a lot of falls and accompanying breaks. For those under 55, it means something different. In Tucson, there's a high crime rate due to the presence of low income Hispanics, illegal immigrants, and a local economy that is more suited towards tourism, University of Arizona students, and retirees, leading to a lot of low income people engaging in crime. The medical system will see a lot of gunshot and stabbing victims, and U of A students who got alcohol poisoning while partying.

If we want to expand the definition of medical facilities, drug/alcohol rehabs would be in demand in Tucson, due to all the drugs coming due to U.S.-Mexico border proximity, limited economic opportunities, and the party atmosphere of a large public university in an area with generally good weather.

Another area of medical that would do well in Tucson would be the area of medicine related to replacement of body parts. Due to the retiree population in Tucson, there would be a lot of knee and hip replacements done.

Western medicine is often criticized for its treatment of chronic conditions, and given the aging population in Tucson, there's no shortage of need for treatment of chronic conditions, such as COPD, hypertension, etc.
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