Amazon is selling hospital rooms
Consumers are used to getting anything they want at the touch of a button, with Amazon being a leader in the field of online delivery and retail. Now, hospitals and healthcare organizations are also seeing more on-demand options, after one company started offering smart hospital rooms for sale on Amazon.
EIR Healthcare, a New York-based technology company founded in 2016, is selling its MedModular units on Amazon for $814 per square foot. The modular units are hospital rooms that are 95 percent complete upon delivery. They include the structure of a room, with flooring, grab bars, sinks, plumbing, windows, medical gas installation, toilet, shower, daybed, desk and sky ceiling.
The cost of the rooms are about 20 percent below average construction costs of hospital rooms, according to EIR Healthcare. And the modular unit helps solve the issue of rising construction costs coupled with the challenging logistics of integrating complicated IT requirements for a better patient experience, CEO Grant Geiger said.
The rooms are listed in the Amazon Business Marketplace platform, which has increasingly become a new supply chain option for hospitals and health systems to order medical products and devices. The units can be used as a simulation lab for hospitals, urgent care facilities, granny pods and more.
With its reach and growing business-to-business marketplace, Amazon seemed like a natural fit for the product, according to Geiger.
“Well simply, Amazon has the most advanced and far-reaching supply chain and logistic network in the world,” Geiger told HealthExec. “If you think about your consumer experience with Amazon you can order most everything from them. And they are the leader in this space, so it was a no-brainer in our minds.”
Currently, the MedModular patient room goes for $285,000. The price does not include the cost of delivery, though the company is working with Amazon on delivery cost. EIR Healthcare is the first company to offer a turn-key option for a hospital room, according to Geiger, though other competitors offer modular building solutions like headwalls and bathrooms.
The company declined to name any of its customers so far, but has had a number of discussions with clients in the U.S. and Europe.
With hospital rooms available to be purchased online, the question remains how far the on-demand market will go. When asked whether he sees a future where a fully functioning hospital room can be purchased or booked, complete with hospital staff and procedures, on demand, Geiger responded, “I'd say why not?”
Amy joined TriMed Media as a Senior Writer for HealthExec after covering home care for three years. When not writing about all things healthcare, she fulfills her lifelong dream of becoming a pirate by sailing in regattas and enjoying rum. Fun fact: she sailed 333 miles across Lake Michigan in the Chicago Yacht Club "Race to Mackinac."