Besides the changing needs of healthcare today, Ball pointed out that the maintenance of the two older buildings was difficult and expensive. Efficiencies in delivering patient services are necessary to cost containment, he pointed out. Ball said that further expansion of beds is not contemplated. Procedures that required several day's hospitalization in years past are now being performed on an outpatient basis, and more patients require specialized care than in the past. There has been a change in the needs of patients who are in hospitals today.
Care is more intensive, and diagnostic technology is more sophisticated and less invasive.
For example, Ball pointed out that cataract surgery that used to require 14 days hospitalization is now a two hour procedure. Open heart surgery patients used to require a year or more recovery, and today are active in four to six weeks. Ball said the next effort for all hospitals is to provide clinical information on an even faster basis. There is a need to communicate information among healthcare providers, and to provide faster test results and faster means of monitoring vital signs. These are essential today.