The South Texas Medical Center generated almost $12 billion in revenue in 2022, according to a new economic impact study, and supported more than 86,000 jobs that paid $5 billion in wages.
That’s a 36% increase in overall impact compared to 2018, the last time the San Antonio Medical Foundation commissioned an economic impact study of the center.
Released earlier this month, the study was performed by the Center for Community and Business Research at UTSA’s Institute for Economic Development, based on data from 2022.
“The South Texas Medical Center is the engine of San Antonio’s leading economic sector,” said Stephanie Chandler, board chair of the foundation, which founded and serves as steward of more than 900 acres in the Medical Center. The foundation celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2022.
Health care and biosciences had a $44 billion impact on San Antonio’s economy in 2021, according to a study commissioned by the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, and directly employed more than 180,000 people who were paid more than $11 billion in wages and salaries. Nearly 1 in 5 employees in San Antonio work in the industry sector, according to that study.
The pandemic was still disrupting health care in 2022, the period studied in the San Antonio Medical Foundation report, said Jim Reed, the foundation’s president. Hospitals were full of COVID patients, and many optional surgeries and treatments were still being delayed.
“So one of the surprising things to me [in the study] was that the numbers came out as high as they did, given the COVID situation and the anomalies it presented.”
He also noted the Medical Center’s rising tax base. The study estimated it poured more than $120 million into city and county coffers in property and sales taxes, and roughly the same amount in sales taxes to the state of Texas.
When the Medical Center was first formed, he said, most of the hospitals were faith-based and not-for-profit, and thus didn’t pay taxes. Tax revenue has increased 84% since 2010, according to foundation figures, as systems such as Baptist Health System partnered with health care corporations to expand.
Today the Medical Center, which the study delineated as the area bounded by Heubner, Babcock, Louis Pasteur and Fredericksburg roads, includes UT Health San Antonio, 12 major hospitals, 45 clinics, 75 “medically-related institutions” and many more small medical practices, offices and non-medical businesses.
While COVID “greatly impacted clinical services,” Reed said, construction in the center continued during the pandemic, including on University Health’s new Women’s & Children’s Hospital, which opens next month, and UT Health’s nearly $500 million Multispecialty and Research Hospital, scheduled to open next year. The foundation donated 12.2 acres to UT for that campus.
The foundation still owns 220 undeveloped acres within the Medical Center.
The San Antonio Medical Foundation is a financial supporter of the San Antonio Report. For a full list of business members, click here.
