While private equity’s involvement in hospital ownership generates significant profits for investors, it exposes patients, communities, and healthcare providers to various risks.
Heather Prendergast, writing for The Hill, shares insights into this issue. The Hill is a publication that reports on government operations and the intersection of politics and business.
Prendergast has spent over 20 years working in Chicago emergency departments. She has observed the consequences when hospitals vanish from neighborhoods that rely heavily on them.
The disappearance of hospitals leads to longer distances for ambulances to travel, overcrowded waiting areas, and patients arriving in worse condition due to unavailability of timely care. Surprisingly, this issue arises not due to a lack of support from the neighborhood, but because the hospital’s assets hold greater value when extracted than when operational.