Thomas Oliver: Medical industry is Atlanta's next growth driver

By Thomas Oliver

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sometimes the answer is staring you in the face.

As Atlanta adjusts to the new world order with fewer homes being built and few, if any, speculative high rises -- in short, as we adapt to an economy that isn’t driven by real estate -- we need not despair.

Atlanta is more than land.

Atlanta has a healthcare industry few cities can boast about.

This has nothing to do with healthcare reform, or what's left of it.

This is about a jewel in the crown we fail to acknowledge and promote.

If Atlanta is looking for our next growth industry, healthcare is it.

It is recession proof, bubble proof, and it doesn't require risky financing. It offers well paying jobs and benefits, not the least of which is job security.

For example: At the end of a string of monthly labor department announcements from the state about job losses and rising unemployment, there is a version of this, which was attached to the state’s press release Thursday: “On a positive note, educational and health services added 11,200 jobs over the year.”

According to the department’s number-crunchers, healthcare related employment in metro Atlanta increased an average of 3.6 percent a year over the last 10 years. Even in 2008, during a full year of recession, healthcare employment increased here 2.7 percent. For 2009, it looks like we’ll be back to the 3.6 percent increase range.

The Georgia Hospital Association says metro Atlanta has 47 hospitals employing 66,860 people. Beyond hospitals, metro Atlanta’s healthcare industry employs another 140,000-plus.

As an industry, healthcare is likely one of our top five already.

Four of metro Atlanta’s top 25 employers are related to healthcare, primarily hospitals, but including Emory University and the CDC.

Speaking of which: What city has such centers of excellence as Emory – its university, medical school, hospitals and research institutions; Children’s Healthcare, one of the nation’s premier children’s hospitals and certainly the pediatric leader in the South; and Shepherd Center, a well respected rehabilitation center.

For all its difficulties, Grady’s trauma unit is well-respected, as are Piedmont and Saint Joseph’s cardiologists and Northside’s gynecology and cancer care, not to mention the latter's unofficial designation as Atlanta’s baby factory.

These are known individually, but not as part of a larger metro Atlanta healthcare system. How many of Atlanta’s promoters ever tout the area as a healthcare center of excellence? Perhaps we mention a component, an Emory or a Shepherd, but we fail to promote the whole.

Who but those in Cobb are aware of Wellstar Cobb Hospital’s reputation in neurology or Kennestone’s orthopedic reputation?

Sheila Strand, president of Strand Communication Strategies, a D.C.-based healthcare marketing consultancy that has worked with Atlanta clients, says healthcare providers need to move beyond rivalries to seek common ground from which to promote Atlanta beyond our borders.

We have the critical mass to attract and grow more healthcare enterprises and ancillary businesses. Which in turn will create a magnet for companies unrelated to healthcare.

Excellence will always attract.

Thomas Oliver writes the Sunday business column. He can be reached at toliver.writeright@gmail.com.