QUESTION
Why is renovating old hospitals oftentimes more expensive than building new ones?
1:31:56
·
170 sec
Renovating old hospitals is usually more expensive than new construction due to high regulatory standards and the architectural complexities involved.
- Renovation costs are high because hospitals must meet stringent regulatory requirements.
- A comparison presented shows building a new university hospital could be cheaper than fixing an existing one.
- Converting hospital buildings to housing is sometimes preferred to maintain some of the original structure while avoiding the high costs associated with hospital functions.
- The complexity of modern hospital needs, such as specific cabling for WiFi and medical gases, adds to the prohibitive cost of rehabilitating old buildings.
- Despite the inherent value of old buildings, the economic reality often favors new construction for functionality and cost efficiency.
Vickie Paladino
1:31:56
I also I you know, I'm curious because we have a lot of I come from district 19, and it's not my it's my neighbor's district but we have some we have Parsons Hospital there.
1:32:11
We have Flushing Hospital there.
1:32:12
If you may, give me just a couple of minutes.
1:32:14
These buildings, and I know of several other buildings.
1:32:17
I know Elmhurst is very tight.
1:32:19
Are you looking to, like, go into these buildings that have once been used as a hospital that have since been boarded up for a great many years.
1:32:29
I was born in Flushing Hospital.
1:32:31
I and my niece was born I will hope is one of parsons possible.
1:32:36
Is there any way in which to increase the volume and the bed space that you would be interested in looking at any of these
Mitch Katz
1:32:43
It depends on the state that they're in.
1:32:45
One useful piece of data is that SUNY said that it would cost $3,000,000,000 to build a new university hospital, but 4,000,000,000 to fix the existing building.
Vickie Paladino
1:32:58
The maze.
Mitch Katz
1:32:58
Which is just the way of saying hospitals are so highly regulated that they can be incredibly expensive to renovate with the sad fact.
1:33:08
And I think that's why a lot of hospital building conversions go to housing.
1:33:13
Because you the housing at least allows you to keep more of the existing thing, and it's just very difficult with the the cabling that you need for the WiFi and order for the systems to work.
1:33:27
The the gases, it just becomes almost prohibitive to rehab, which is a shame because old buildings have a value.
Vickie Paladino
1:33:36
That's exactly right.
Mitch Katz
1:33:37
But but I think that the reality is generally new is cheaper to build.
Vickie Paladino
1:33:41
And hearing that Beth Israel, which I just learned last week was going to be closing.
1:33:46
That that took me quite by surprise as well.
Mitch Katz
1:33:49
They say that it's also a lot influenced by building failure, that these are buildings that were built in the 19 sixties and that they don't function with modern hospital protocols anymore.
Vickie Paladino
1:34:03
And it's not reasonable to try to take the hospital such as Beth Israel and just refurbish what needs to be done.
1:34:12
I mean, we don't see the the core I mean, we we this city operates on a 100 over a $100,000,000,000.
1:34:22
And we're looking at what we need most which is care.
Mitch Katz
1:34:26
Yes.
Vickie Paladino
1:34:27
And it's just getting worse and worse, and yet we cannot find the money to do what we need to do to a building like Beth Israel.
1:34:37
I don't understand that.
1:34:38
I mean, that's another historic HOSPITAL.
1:34:41
YOU KNOW, AND I UNDERSTAND IT TAKES A BILLIONS TO DO WHAT WE NEED TO DO, BUT WHY NOT?