FROM THE PRESIDENT

For decades, the Texas Medical Center has been recognized as the ultimate destination for those seeking expert medical care and quality education. Within the walls of the colleges, universities and hospitals of the Texas Medical Center complex, some of the most significant medical breakthroughs in the world take place.

But in addition to its contributions to the field of medicine, did you know that the Texas Medical Center also has an enormous impact on the local economy, not to mention the economy of the state and the nation? A report conducted by the University of Houston Center for Economic Development and Research, and subsequently released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, indicates for the first time just how influential TMC’s impact is on Houston’s economic health. While the economic contributions of TMC institutions have been understood for years, the report provides solid numbers as proof.

In conducting this study, the UH center sifted through 18 years of data gathered and reported by the 42 member institutions of the Texas Medical Center. The ensuing statistical analysis showed that in 2000, TMC spent approximately $5.8 billion in Harris County and the surrounding region, and provided or supported 142,000 jobs that produced $3.8 billion in take-home pay for employees. Those employees, along with 16,500 Texas Medical Center students, spent $131 million on durable goods – goods that are tangible, such as cars, appliances, etc. This figure doesn’t take into account the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on nontangible items, such as meals and entertainment. Had these types of expenditures been included as well, the economic impact totals would be even greater. How many other Houston-based businesses can make such a claim? Very few.

It is clear that the Texas Medical Center injects a healthy dose of dollars into Houston’s economy – $5.8 billion annually. While TMC institutions by their very definition are nonprofit and therefore tax-exempt, employees of TMC institutions do pay sales, property and income taxes, as do students and visitors who frequent the TMC. Businesses that support the 42 TMC institutions are also taxpayers. How could we function without the delivery services, volunteers, medical equipment suppliers and countless others who do business here every day?

As a collective entity, the TMC can be counted on to regularly boost Houston’s economy. Unlike Houston’s high-profile energy, high-tech and aerospace industries that experience dramatic financial swings and cycles, the TMC is stable, with an annual growth rate of 4 percent. That growth, in fact, is expected to skyrocket in the next decade. Currently at 22 million square feet, the TMC will expand to 32 million square feet and will add approximately 50 percent more employees to Houston’s workforce.

Clearly, this economic analysis validates the importance of the Texas Medical Center to the economy of Houston, both now and in the future.

E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/02_15_02/page_23.html