Caring for our community powering our economy

Impact study shows how University Health provides care for patients as it boosts local economy

An in-depth economic impact study by the Perryman Group shows that University Health is a major driver of the local economy with a positive impact of several billion dollars a year.

The study details how University Health, one of Texas’ largest public health systems and the region’s only academic medical center, provides not only top-quality care to everyone but also is a significant economic benefit to the entire community. This is achieved by employing more than 12,000 team members and 2,000 physicians, along with an historic $1.7 billion expansion that further extends access to care for the underserved and fast-growing parts of Bexar County.

“We have been thoughtful and strategic stewards of both our public funding, which is now less than15% of our revenue budget – and our mission to improve the good health of the entire community,” University Health President and CEO Ed Banos said. “As a result, we have been able to make these investments in our services and facilities that have significantly expanded health care access and provide a tangible multiplier effect for the economic health of the community.”

Expansion as economic driver

The Perryman Group study shows that University Health’s expansion projects, including the Women’s & Children’s Hospital, two five-story community hospitals—Palo Alto and Retama—opening in 2027 and the two new multi-specialty clinics of Vida and Wheatley, provide an economic benefit of $5.7 billion in total construction activity and more than 26,000 jobs. This 5-year expansion results in an overall boost to the local economy of $2.8 billion, including multiplier effect.

One of the largest projects, Palo Alto and Vida on the South Side, address a growing area and longtime health care desert. In addition to improving access to much needed health care services in underserved areas of our community, the Palo Alto Hospital and Vida multi-specialty clinic on the South Side will lead to further development in the surrounding area, including housing and commercial businesses.

“Having top-notch health care available to a community encourages growth and investment in that community,” Banos said, as it brings in other services like grocery stores that people want to have close to home.

Local leadership equals local investment

University Health is the largest and fastest growing health care employer in the community. It is also the only locally owned health system, with all decisions made here. “It’s all that investment that keeps coming back home,” he said, “through local choices by local leadership who make sure that it’s reinvested for the benefit of our community.”

Another example of this investment is University Health’s purchase of a shuttered hospital and medical office campus in the Medical Center in late 2025. University Health is now investing another $20 million to upgrade and modernize the facility to create University Health Babcock Specialty Hospital.

A majority of the jobs and services used in this expansion are local.

“We are very committed to using local labor first,” Banos said. “About 70% of our labor and expenses are local,” barring some things like large medical equipment.

Providing more access equals economic activity

And as University Health executes its mission to provide preventive, primary, urgent, emergency, specialty, surgical and hospital care, it generates more than $6.7 billion in annual expenditures, including the multiplier effect, boosting the local economy by $3.6 billion each year and supporting over 35,600 jobs across Bexar County.

“First of all, we want to make sure we are good stewards of the taxpayer dollar,” Banos said. “Anything else that we can do, every dollar made, we reinvest that money back into the community. We do this by building clinics, by hiring employees and by investing in signature programs such as our transplant program and our Level I pediatric and adult trauma centers.”

Academic medical centers are drivers of excellence

Those signature programs are supported by University Health’s academic partnership with UT Health San Antonio. Education is another key part of growing and sustaining both health care quality and access and the broader economy.

“Our partnership with UT Health is what makes us an academic medical center and we are proud of this affiliation. Through it we support more than 850 physicians who are pursuing specialized board certifications, and about 600 of these resident doctors are dedicated to University Health, Banos said “That represents roughly a $75 million annual commitment to medical education. Together, we are training future physicians for our community and offering the most advanced care, here, so people do not need to travel to Dallas or Houston for high-end care.”