HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GROUP.pptVIP

HEALTHCARE INDUSTRYECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GROUP Suggested Initiatives, Strategies, Objectives and Projects Community Economic Development Forum September 8, 2007 HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GROUP Members Elena Marin, M.D. Executive Director Su Clinica Familiar Adela Valdez, M.D. Assistant Dean of Education UTHSCSA Regional Academic Health Center Armando Elizarde Builder/Developer Director, Harlingen EDC Bill Burns Interim CEO Harlingen Medical Center James G. Springfield President CEO Valley Baptist Health System R. K. Whittington Attorney Former Mayor of Harlingen Why Healthcareas Economic Development Strategy? Harlingen has been the medical center and “go to” place for state of the art and quality health care in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas. Even before the RAHC, every recent long-range strategic plan for the economic development of Harlingen has identified healthcare as a potential “industry” or “cluster” to be nurtured and encouraged. Advocates for healthcare as a stimulus for the creation of jobs and capital investment in Harlingen often point to the dramatic story of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio (UTHSCSA) and its multi-billion dollar per year impact on that city’s economy. OTHER TEXAS CITIES HAVE BUILT DYNAMIC ECONOMIES ON A HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY FOUNDATION Harlingen has a head start on where San Antonio and other cities began because of our existing assets. The healthcare industry and related businesses are already a major generator of jobs, capital investment, and tax revenue in our community. In 1960, the UTHSCSA site in San Antonio was nothing more than 2 silos and cotton fields … … and a VISION By 2007, UTHSCSA has become a world-class medical school and health science center and the core of a multi-billion dollar economic center of medical treatment, education and research. The healthcare industry in San Antonio has surpassed the military and tourism as the region’s largest business sector.