The Case For Growing Healthcare In The Middle Of Nowhere

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Rural healthcare can be a headache for leadership, one many systems won’t entertain. But for Wausau, Wis.-based Aspirus, it’s the whole model; it’s the growth plan.

Matt Heywood has been leading the health system for more than 10 years, and he’s always had the same motto, he told Becker’s: “Sometimes in chaos is opportunity.”

That’s certainly been true for Aspirus, which recently inked a deal with Duluth, Minn.-based St. Luke’s. The two entities will combine to form a 19-hospital system at a time when industry M&A has hit a major snag. Healthcare is dealing with an existential crisis and it makes sense that a lot of other systems are putting acquisitions on hold. But St. Luke’s and Aspirus share a similar mission — keeping healthcare local, maintaining consistent quality regardless of ZIP code — so a partnership made sense.

It’s not the first growth move for Aspirus, which is “tucking in” like-minded entities. In 2021, the health system acquired seven hospitals and 21 clinics from Ascension Wisconsin.

“With the Ascension acquisition, by getting that contiguous scale, we’re able to bring orthopedic services, surgical services closer to the patient than before,” Mr. Heywood said. “Because we were doing it on our own. And Ascension was doing it on their own. And neither one of us could effectively get enough scale to provide care to those patients.”

Rural healthcare requires a different approach, according to Mr. Heywood. Some locations are  immune to innovations sweeping urban areas; internet can be inconsistent, nixing telehealth offerings, and patients are widely dispersed, making it difficult to employ hospital-at-home programs. Instead of leaning on the new norm and centralizing care at a few in-person locations, Aspirus aims to expand physical sites of service.

“It’s a model I think a few others are trying, but not many. And the reason not many are trying is it’s a lot of work,” Mr. Heywood said. “It is a commitment that takes the management team, our physicians, and our staff a lot more energy than it would if we just said, ‘You know what? Let’s just ship everything to Wausau or Duluth and not have stuff out in the community for our patients.'”

It’s a delicate balance — sites can’t be too dispersed, because that’s inefficient. But care should remain as local as possible so cancer patients don’t have to drive hours for intravenous therapies. The more scale Aspirus has, the more resources and technology it can deploy, and the better connectivity to larger sites will be.

The health system also aims to utilize critical access designations to their maximum ability, making sure each site can do what it needs to do based on the community’s needs and size.

“We have some critical access hospitals, which we call ‘frontier,’ which are very much EDs with a few beds and clinics,” Mr. Heywood said. “But then you might have what we call a ‘super critical access hospital,’ which is doing outpatient surgeries, orthopedic surgeries, OB, things like that.”

One major challenge: staffing. Worker shortages are a nationwide issue, and rural areas are certainly not immune. Aspirus is working with local community colleges to create feeder programs, looking to employ talented people before they leave, according to Mr. Heywood.

“We are trying to sell that rural America, the Midwest, is maybe not so bad when you’re having Tropical Storm Hilary in Palm Springs, you’re having a major hurricane hit you in Florida, you’re having wildfires here and there,” Mr. Heywood said. “So what we’re trying to do is get people to see that staying close to home is not a bad thing, so we don’t have a flight from rural America that has historically been happening.”

The Aspirus model isn’t a conventional one, but Mr. Heywood has faith in it. Someone has to; about 100 million people live in underserved rural America, and on average, they die two years younger than their urban counterparts.

“You have to look out into the future and see what you think the future is,” Mr. Heywood said, “independently of what everybody’s telling you.”

 

Source: Becker’s Hospital Review

Real Capital Solutions Buys 404,000 SF Medtronic Campus Near Boulder For $188M

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Real Capital Solutions (RCS), a Louisville, Colo.-based real estate investment and management firm, announced that it has acquired the newly completed, two-building, 404,149 square foot life sciences campus of the global medical device company Medtronic in Lafayette, Colo., about 12 miles east of Boulder.

RCS has confirmed to local news media that the purchase price was $188 million. The previous owner and presumed seller of the real estate was Ryan Lafayette LLC, a partnership associated with the developer, Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies US Inc.

The single-tenant, net-leased asset includes two connected five-story buildings at 200 and 250 Medtronic Drive, near the intersection of U.S. Highway 287 and Northwest Parkway, at the southernmost edge of Lafayette. Medtronic has a 20-year lease on the build-to-suit facilities.

Adam Abeln, chief acquisitions officer for RCS, said the Medtronic Lafayette Campus deal was the largest acquisition in the firm’s 40-year history. He also said RCS has done multiple deals with Ryan Companies over the years and had monitored the development of the campus.

“What interests us about Medtronic was just the credit quality, the name, the fact that they’re the world’s largest medical device producer and the fact that it fits within our strategy today,” Mr. Abeln told the Business Journal, adding that Medtronic’s long-term lease on the property made it an attractive deal in an uncertain real estate market.

RCS Plans To Keep Buying

Mr. Abeln also told local media that the firm plans to keep buying.

“Near-term, we believe commercial real estate values, especially in multifamily and office, will fall and defaults will rise,” Mr. Abeln told Colorado Biz. “The next six to 18 months will be tough for many owners, particularly those who will need to refinance. We have strong relationships with lenders and plan to be major buyers, especially here in Colorado.”

He added that RCS has been positioning itself for this downturn for some time, selling much of its at-risk portfolio, amassing cash, and investing in similar high-credit, STNL deals for itself and other ultra-high-net-worth families who are concerned about capital preservation.

However, Mr. Abeln told the Business Journal that RCS plans to adjust its strategy by pursuing more “value-add, opportunistic” multifamily, office, retail and industrial deals, rather than focusing solely on “safe” STNL properties.

According to its website, RCS “is a highly entrepreneurial real estate company that invests smart capital and provides practical solutions for real estate opportunities. For over 30 years, RCS has achieved great success investing in entrepreneurial real estate ventures.”

During that time, the firm says, it has acquired and managed more than 370 real estate assets, totaling about $3.5 billion in acquisition value. It currently owns 70 properties with more than $2 billion in assets under management (AUM).

Plans Call For Additional Development

The site plan for the Medtronic Lafayette Campus, which was approved by city officials in March 2021, included a potential second phase of the project that would include a third five-story building and a three-level parking structure. That future project could boost the size of the campus to nearly 600,000 square feet, with total employment of about 2,000. The timetable for the phase two development has not been disclosed.

Before selecting the Lafayette campus, Medtronic reportedly considered sites in Minnesota and Texas, as well as the possibility of expanding to the former StorageTek campus, now called Redtail Ridge, in Louisville.

Ryan Companies and Medtronic broke ground for the Lafayette campus in June 2021. At the time, Medtronic said it planned to invest $200 million in the new campus, which would create 1,100 jobs and unite employees from its other Colorado facilities.

At the time, Medtronic noted that it had maintained a presence in Colorado for almost 50 years, with facilities in Boulder and Louisville, and employed about 2,300 people across the state. The firm said it would maintain manufacturing operations in Boulder and Louisville, and shift R&D work to the new Lafayette campus, which would include about 60,000 square feet of R&D space, along with some administrative functions.

When ground was broken, Medtronic Chairman and CEO Geoff Martha said, “Medtronic medical technology developed and manufactured in Colorado transforms patient care globally, and we anticipate continued innovation at our new Lafayette campus. We look forward to coming together at a single campus to bolster our presence in Colorado and position ourselves for growth. In addition, we are investing in this innovation center and new campus to attract and retain technology talent in this tech-rich region of Colorado.”

Colorado officials also welcomed the construction project and the ongoing boost the campus would give the local economy, particularly coming on the heels of the downturn associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re thrilled with Medtronic’s investment in Colorado,” the state Chief Economic Recovery Officer and Executive Director Pat Meyers said at the time. “This new campus will allow for good jobs, innovation, and employee wellness, all of which are critical to powering the Colorado Comeback.”

Medtronic, whose U.S. headquarters is in Minneapolis, is owned by Dublin, Ireland-based Covidien, a global healthcare products and medical device manufacturer. According to a news release from Medtronic, the 42.2-acre Lafayette campus is its second largest in the United States. The firm says it has sites in more than 350 locations in more than 150 countries.

 

Source: HREI

Baptist Health And The Miami Dolphins Announce The Opening Of New Orthopedic Complex

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Baptist Health is pleased to announce the opening of its new, state-of-the-art orthopedic complex across the street from Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins.

Serving Dolphins players and the public alike, the new location offers comprehensive orthopedic care with a full range of diagnostic imaging, physical therapy and rehabilitation services all under one roof.

The expansive, 17,000-square-foot facility is located adjacent to the Baptist Health Training Complex, the Dolphins’ training facility, with clinical areas overlooking the team’s practice field. The new location will provide the public with high-quality orthopedic care, featuring cutting-edge technology and renowned Baptist Health medical experts.

“This new facility serves as a symbol of Baptist Health’s dedication to both our community and our partnership with the Miami Dolphins,” said Javier Hernandez-Lichtl, CEO of Baptist Health’s Doctors Hospital and Baptist Health Orthopedic Institute. “With its ideal central location, the orthopedic complex will provide even more members of the community with our trusted care, and we look forward to inviting our patients in.”

The new orthopedic complex commemorates the decades-long relationship between the Miami Dolphins and Baptist Health, which serves as the Official Medical Team and Official Wellness and Sports Medicine Provider for the team. In July 2023, the two entities celebrated the two-year anniversary of the unveiling of the Baptist Health Training Complex where the team, coaching staff and football support staff are headquartered year-round.

“We are excited for the community to ‘go where the pros go’ and experience the same level of expertise we provide the exceptional athletes of the Miami Dolphins,” said John Uribe, M.D., orthopedic surgeon and Chief Medical Executive with Baptist Health Orthopedic Care and head team physician of the Miami Dolphins. “This orthopedic complex is the pinnacle of medical expertise, advanced treatment options and expedient care for all patients.”

 

“Baptist Health has been an incredible partner for many years, and it’s a privilege for us to join them in serving both our community and the players alike by bringing this world-class facility to our backyard,” said Jeremy Walls, Chief Revenue Officer of the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium. “We’re excited that the public will be able to step foot on our campus and experience the same standard of care as our team in this new, innovative space.”

Baptist Health is also a proud partner of the Miami Dolphins Foundation, working together on a series of initiatives around the health and safety of South Florida students, coaches and parents to grow youth football participation in the region.

The orthopedic complex will begin seeing patients on August,14 at 19955 NW 27th Avenue, Suite 200, Miami Gardens. The entrance to the facility can be found at Gate 11, located on NW 27th Avenue between 199th Street and 203rd Street. Patients must have an appointment to receive care.​

 

Source: South Florida Hospital News