Wellness emerges as a real estate strategy

With a changing medical model that is moving from treating the sick to helping people stay fit, wellness centers have become a component of the real estate strategies for some health systems, hospital executives told an audience of healthcare real estate professionals at BOMA International’s Medical Office Building conference in Atlanta May 3.

Alan Kent, CEO of Meadows Regional Medical Center in Vidalia, Ga., said not many people received outpatient services from the health system until it renovated a 60,000-square-foot abandoned warehouse into a wellness center and physical therapy practice. The building houses a state-of-the-art gym, a therapy pool, assessment rooms, a board room and classrooms where sessions are held on topics such as smoking cessation and knee and hip joint health.

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The renovation project cost $500,000 and resulted in a facility with 2,200 paying gym members.

“It’s hard for me to say that in the short term there is any money in wellness,” said Kent. “But by the same token, the evidence shows we need to be more accountable for our health.”

Kent notes the community good will that came from investing in the dilapidated building and in the health of the community is translating into dollars for the medical center.

“It got people thinking of us as being a leader, a good community citizen that cares about community wellness,” he said. “What you are looking for is how an individual unit can impact the whole. The wellness center feeds the whole.”

“We’ve seen an increase in market share through the wellness center,” added Kent, who whole-heartedly believes in the wellness concept as a driver of community good will and revenue.

“I am so committed to this concept, I’ve told my boss I would leave an undated resignation letter with him,” said Kent. “So far, he has not had to cash that in.”

Steve Abdenour, senior vice president-systems operations at Akron General Health System in Akron, Ohio, said the health system has also developed a real estate plan to position itself for the trend in outpatient care and the focus on the community wellness movement.

Akron General has built two wellness centers, each about 10 miles from the main hospital campus, and is in the process of building a third. The facilities each include a gym, therapy pool and medical office space.

Abdenour said the health system also rents space to other businesses that “draw people into the building that might otherwise not know about it.”

“On the average day, there are 800 people walking through the door,” added Abdenour. “Many are members of the gym, but many are coming for diagnostic service” and doctors appointments. The wellness centers are a significant referral source and often result in admissions at the main campus.   

“The wellness area if left to stand on its own is break even at best, but it’s a real driver to get volume into the system,” he said.