A children’s hospital in Columbus, Ohio, is trying to treat a difficult patient: Its own struggling neighborhood.

About a decade ago, Nationwide Children’s Hospital embarked on a project to transform the adjacent area. The medical institution pumped investments into housing improvements in the surrounding community as part of an audacious effort to create a healthier environment for residents. The idea, as a recent article in Pediatrics journal explained, was in part an effort to treat a “neighborhood as a patient”—improve the overall public-health profile of the community by reducing the stressors of a high-poverty environment.

So far, Nationwide Children’s experimental cure for a sick neighborhood seems to be working—housing values are ticking up, the vacancy rate is down, and several other indicators are showing positive results

A rendering of Nationwide Children's Hospital's new behavioral health pavilion in Columbus, Ohio. It's one of the largest and most prestigious institutions of its kind in the U.S., but the neighborhoods nearby have not always benefited from its growth.
A rendering of Nationwide Children's Hospital's new behavioral health pavilion in Columbus, Ohio. It's one of the largest and most prestigious institutions of its kind in the U.S., but the neighborhoods nearby have not always benefited from its growth. © Nationwide Children’s Hospital and NBBJ

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Nationwide may provide a warmer, fuzzier model for hospital-as-developer. But it’s not immune to some of the same criticisms that have been leveled at other big medical institutions. Its profits are also booming, largely thank to the hospital’s work through its accountable-care organization, Partners for Kids. The hospital has recorded a revenue surplus on its spending on Medicaid patients in recent years, rather than a deficit, and according to a 2015 article by the Columbus Dispatch, it posted $285 million in total surplus from operations. Partners for Kids has slashed tens of millions of dollars in annual costs to the hospital, Nationwide’s chief financial officer Tim Robinson said at the time.

Compared to those huge numbers, $6 million in paint jobs and home-flipping doesn’t seem like much. And what is far more obvious, and measurable, than the health effects of Nationwide’s neighborhood “treatment plan” are its effect on neighborhood property values. Southern Orchards is gentrifying, thanks to new homebuyers lured by the low-priced, recently rehabbed homes.

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