Aging hospitals aren’t ready for the technology revolution

American hospitals are old. Much of today’s hospital stock was initially built in the decades following World War II. Nearly 7,000 health care facilities — including hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and clinics — have been constructed with public funding. 

The architects of mid-20th century hospitals couldn’t have anticipated today’s medical technology. Modern hospitals are packed with complicated, electricity-guzzling machines, connected by mazes of wires and cables. Newer hospitals are built with large gaps between floors to accommodate these cables; older hospital buildings don’t have such space.

Those buildings have been upgraded since their construction, but increasingly, the pace of renovations and repairs is faltering.

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