San Diego Hospital Industry Essay

San Diego’s Hospital Industry
Hospitals and hospital systems are designed for public use and access. Either privately owned, state funded, or federally funded, hospitals operate to provide a service of health improvement to their surrounding communities. Operating on a profit or not-for-profit basis, all hospital organizations have the obligation to provide community benefit with an aim to administer a service most relevant to their core competencies as an organization. Scripps health is a private, nonprofit organization which operates a number of hospitals, clinics, and medical centers across San Diego County, generating $2.5 billion in annual revenue. Operating within what can be considered an oligopoly, the largest and most influential hospitals and hospital systems in the San Diego area include Scripps Health System, Sharp Health System, UC San Diego Health System, Tri-City Medical Center, Palomar Medical Center, Rady Children’s Hospital, and Kaiser Permanente.
San Diego is a highly populated metropolitan area with over 3 million residents. As such, 25 hospitals are in operation throughout the county. With over 140,000

North County includes wealthy and well insured patients; East County includes middle-class residents with mixed insurance plans; South County has higher rates of poverty, indicating no or public insurance plans, and Central County has the highest rates of poverty and uninsured patients. This is a big factor when making decisions as to where new hospitals or clinics should be located, and where community benefit should be provided. Recently, many clinics and outpatient services have been shifted from central urban areas to the more affluent north county areas. As competition for the highly insured affluent North County patients increases, facilities such as UCSD and Scripps are upgrading facilities to provide the best, most desirable