Indiana's healthcare systems generate a $31.3 billion economic impact to the State

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Healthcare systems employ more than 150,000 Hoosiers throughout the state and drive a $31.3 billion economic impact, according to "The Economic Impacts of Indiana's Public and Private Hospitals and Outpatient Care Centers," a new report prepared by Battelle Technology Partnership Practice for BioCrossroads. In all, traditional life sciences jobs (drugs and pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and devices and research and laboratory testing), along with employment in food and agricultural service, information technology, and healthcare delivery account for 825,000 employees and more than $13.25 billion in annual wages in Indiana today. 

"Indiana has significant economic contributions and breakthrough science on both sides of the life sciences equation - the developed product like a pharmaceutical drug or heart stent as well as the delivered care in the health system setting," said David L. Johnson, president and CEO, BioCrossroads.  "Life sciences is ultimately about advancing human health through successful discoveries and development, and we see the full impact of innovation and its implementation realized when it improves a patient's life at the point of care. Increasingly today, our healthcare providers and systems are integrally tied to any successful strategy for advancing our regional life sciences strengths."

The report highlights the healthcare centers as the care delivery component of the life sciences continuum that affects innovations through new medical treatments, biomedical products, and programs including:

• The use of hospital data to drive better patient care led to the development of the Indiana Health Information Exchange, the most advanced and largest health information exchange in the U.S.
• Clinical trials at our hospitals and outpatient treatment centers are the point where medical care professionals match innovations with patients.  The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute's (a NIH-funded collaboration among the Indiana University School of Medicine, Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame) current data set provides information on 1,457 active trials across the State.

Other key findings:

• Healthcare delivery jobs are well distributed throughout the state.  The majority of the jobs are in the Central part of the state, with the Indianapolis/Carmel metropolitan area accounting for 35% of all jobs in the sector and hospital and outpatient medical center employment representing 4.2% of Indiana's total public and private employment.  Employment in Indiana's hospitals and outpatient medical centers has grown by more than 16% over the last 10 years. 
• This sector purchased more than $1.3 billion in real estate and more than $400 million from medical and diagnostics laboratories and other ambulatory care services in 2011  -- all from Indiana suppliers or suppliers with facilities in the State.

"Indiana's hospitals and medical care centers reach every corner of our state.  Having a baseline look at the industry's health, innovation and economic impact is vital so that we have context around public policy debates and the current transformation of health care delivery," said Doug Leonard, president of the Indiana Hospital Association. "Through this report and the resulting data, BioCrossroads demonstrates the important intersection between the life sciences industry and health care delivery – and its advantages for the health of Hoosiers and our economy."

The full report is at www.biointellex.com.

About BioCrossroads
BioCrossroads (www.biocrossroads.com) advances Indiana's signature strengths in the life sciences by connecting with corporate, academic and philanthropic partners; facilitating investments in promising start ups and building new enterprises; and educating through conferences, reports and market development knowledge.   The initiative supports the region's existing research and corporate strengths while encouraging new business development and has formed several new nonprofit organizations, including Indiana Health Information Exchange, Fairbanks Institute for Healthy Communities, BioCrossroadsLINX, OrthoWorx,  and Datalys Center.

Editor's Note on data:
The data for this analysis is from 2011 and is derived and estimated from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Provider of Services – 2011 Annual Data File, The Indiana Family & Social Security Administration Web site, and Hoover's Directory of Business.  The analysis was developed to be inclusive of public and private sector (both non-profit and for-profit) hospitals and outpatient medical center operations in the state.  Battelle's employment estimate is conservative because Indiana University medical faculty working primarily within an IU Health operation may be classified as "university" or "public education" instead of "hospital."

SOURCE BioCrossroads