Boston’s suburbanites find more specialized care closer to home

Boston hospitals and national health care firms are investing millions in building medical facilities such as cancer centers and specialty doctor practices in the suburbs so that patients can get treatment closer to home and avoid traveling into the city for skilled care.

“The old model for health care for people who didn’t live in cities was you went to the local community hospital and if things went bad, you went into the heart of the city to get your more complicated health care,” Ashish Jha, K.T. Li Professor of International Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said in an October 15, 2015 ­Boston Globe article. “That model has changed. Now you can get a lot of the health care you want without having to drive into the city.”

One reason for the change is that more Boston hospital staffers now work at the suburban locations, Jha said. However, the financial implication of the trend remains to be seen. “Will they be able to charge academic medical center prices when they’re in Waltham or wherever? We don’t know,” Jha said. At the same time, he added, many community hospitals have been bought out in recent years or are struggling financially.

Read the Boston Globe article: Beyond Boston, patients find specialized care closer to home