[sirkingwilliam]

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY HAS AN OVER 30 BILLION DOLLAR ECONOMIC IMPACT

RENDERING OF THE PLANNED METHODIST HOSPITAL EXPANSION IN THE MEDICAL CENTER

W. Scott Bailey
Reporter/Project Coordinator-
San Antonio Business Journal

The economic impact of San Antonio's leading industry — health care and the biosciences — is now $30.6 billion annually, based on 2013 data, according to a new study by Trinity University professors Richard Butler and Mary Stefl.

That's a significant increase compared to 2012, when the estimated economic impact of the industry was $23.5 billion.

Ten years ago, back in 2003, the economic impact of the industry was less than $12 billion.

More than 32 percent of the economic impact from health care and the biosciences is driven by the city's highly competitive hospital sector.
Pharmaceutical, research and education activity accounts for another 21 percent of the estimated impact.

According to the study, employers in the health care/bioscience industry paid out nearly $8 billion in wages in 2013. More than one in six San Antonio workers are employed by the industry.

Over the last decade, the economic impact from San Antonio's hospital sector has increased by 130 percent. That growth rate can be tied to a number of factors, including continued infrastructure expansion. Methodist Healthcare, for example, has continued to invest in its infrastruture. The health care system and has begun work on a $250 million project that will involve the expansion of two of its South Texas Medical Center hospitals.

In the last 10 years, San Antonio's health care and biosciences industry has added more than 41,500 net new jobs — an increase of 40 percent.