Capital Plans and Needs of Health Centers

Updated: August 22, 2016

By Capital Link, 2012

In the fall of 2011, Capital Link conducted a national capital needs study of health centers across the country. The purpose of the study was to determine the current capital plans of health centers nationally—and to determine whether these plans, if funded and implemented, would be sufficient to provide the facilities necessary to serve 40 million patients. Information on the current health center capital plans was collected using an online assessment tool that was e-mailed to 1,200 health centers across the country. A total of 357 health centers  responded, representing a response rate of 30%.

Current Capital Development Plans
Of the responding health centers, 76 % (273) indicated that they had specific plans to initiate 344 capital projects over the next five years. The total cost of these planned capital projects amounted to $1.3 billion. Extrapolating on the data from these responding health centers to the national universe of about 1,200 health centers, which includes grantees1 and FQHC Look-Alikes, Capital Link estimates that planned capital investments for all health centers will likely total approximately $5.7 billion over the next 5 years, including projects to replace, renovate and improve existing facilities as well as projects to expand existing capacity. These projects, if funded and built, should accommodate approximately 6,629 additional providers and 6.9 million new patients.