ODU study shows EVMS
vital to healthy economy and healthy community
November 27, 2007
NORFOLK—Eastern Virginia Medical School has provided Hampton Roads
with a springboard for both a healthier economy and a healthier
community, according to an economic impact study conducted by the Old
Dominion University Research Foundation.
When the local community founded EVMS in 1973, Hampton Roads added
medical education and medical research to the region’s economic
portfolio and created a new mechanism for improving the quality of
health care.
Since then, EVMS’ imprint on the regional economy has grown to $711
million annually, according to the ODU study, which was authored by
James V. Koch, Ph.D., Board of Visitors Professor of Economics and
President Emeritus at ODU.
The study quantifies the observation of a regional hospital executive
that it would be “disastrous” for Hampton Roads if EVMS did not exist.
Among its findings:
- EVMS is a major employer in the
region. With 1,386 full-time employees, EVMS is among the 25 largest
non-federal employers in Hampton Roads.
- EVMS generates high-quality jobs.
EVMS full-time employees earn an average of $73,874, compared to the
regional average of $45,000.
- EVMS employees generate $2.65
million in real-estate taxes and $5.24 million in sales taxes, for a
total of $7.89 million in annual local tax payments.
- EVMS students and residents
(physicians in training) spend $23.81 million locally, not including
tuition costs.
- EVMS Health Services provides
$40.5 million in uncollected medical and surgical care. The cost of
this uncompensated care would be passed on to area hospitals or
other agencies if EVMS did not exist.
- It would cost local families $66.6
million annually to travel outside the region for medical care
currently provided by EVMS Health Services.
- EVMS generates approximately $40
million in external research funding each year, a substantial source
of outside revenue.
- One in four physicians in the
region has a tie to EVMS.
In addition to the economic benefits EVMS brings to Hampton Roads, the
study outlines the impact that EVMS has on quality of life for all
citizens in Hampton Roads.
“The presence of EVMS attracts highly qualified medical personnel who
provide a menu of high quality medical care that otherwise would be
beyond our grasp,” Koch wrote.
EVMS helps local hospitals attract and retain critical personnel;
provides access to cutting-edge medical treatments; provides vital
critical-care services, such as trauma surgery and maternal-fetal
medicine; provides gratis public health services that improve community
health; and plays a key role in providing access to care for people
without the means to pay.
“It is possible to express EVMS’ economic imprint on Hampton Roads as a
number (about $711 million annually),” Koch says in the report. “While
this is an impressively large number, it does not begin to capture the
tremendous contribution the medical school makes to the welfare of the
region. Our quality of life (and sometimes our actual lives) depends
upon the good works of EVMS.”
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