I can go one step further with an anecdote- in the small town I live in, private equity bought our small hospital, and the land it sits on.
Consequently, it changed policy, raided the equipment to take expensive equipment to other hospitals, ran it into the ground, and then closed it permanently on the grounds that it was too expensive to operate.
The hospital sat derelict for probably more than 6 years as the city fought with the owner to try to get a hospital + emergency room back to no avail.
It was then promptly razed to the ground, and now the highly valuable real estate is currently sitting there growing weeds, as the owners contemplate what to do next. We believe they will build luxury senior housing there, but nobody knows.
The closest ER to my house used to be less than 5 miles away. Now it is more than 15 miles to the north, and it is shared by a much larger area. The nearest ER in any other direction is 30+ miles away.
It destroyed the hospital, and our local medical community in the process.
So yeah, at least in my case (and I suspect I'm not alone), private equity was completely destructive to our hospital.
Consequently, it changed policy, raided the equipment to take expensive equipment to other hospitals, ran it into the ground, and then closed it permanently on the grounds that it was too expensive to operate.
The hospital sat derelict for probably more than 6 years as the city fought with the owner to try to get a hospital + emergency room back to no avail.
It was then promptly razed to the ground, and now the highly valuable real estate is currently sitting there growing weeds, as the owners contemplate what to do next. We believe they will build luxury senior housing there, but nobody knows.
The closest ER to my house used to be less than 5 miles away. Now it is more than 15 miles to the north, and it is shared by a much larger area. The nearest ER in any other direction is 30+ miles away.
It destroyed the hospital, and our local medical community in the process.
So yeah, at least in my case (and I suspect I'm not alone), private equity was completely destructive to our hospital.