Boomlet in Health Construction In February
Construction of new health facilities enjoyed a boomlet in February, growing 2.0 percent, while other construction shrank 0.6 percent (Table I).
The rate of growth in construction starts was similar for both private and public health facilities, at 2.0 percent and 1.7 percent. However, the relative growth was much larger for public health facilities, because non-health public construction declined much more than non-health private construction (a drop of 1.8 percent versus a drop of 0.2 percent).
This is the first uptick in health facilities construction in a while. Over the last twelve months, health facilities construction starts have lagged other construction starts by 7.2 percent (10.5 percent growth versus 3.3 percent growth). It is too early to say whether February’s boomlet in health facilities construction indicates a downturn. However, it suggests health systems are beginning to be optimistic about their abilities to continue to extract revenue from the system.
