Value for money through asset optimisation: Take 1!
Who would have thought it? The Paris hospitals generate additional revenue by renting out premises, equipment and even clothing… for films, television series and commercials. It works, and it brings in a substantial income that supports the operation and maintenance of their assets. Let us tell you more.
Hospitals in Paris are a palimpsest of history. Many occupy historic monuments or period buildings, or have been bequeathed historic assets over centuries of activity. The famous Quinze-Vingts ophthalmology hospital, founded by King Louis IX (Saint Louis) around 1260, illustrates this venerable history.
Over close to 900 years, the Paris hospitals have built up a remarkable real estate portfolio, with some 4 million square metres of public buildings used to provide care and related services.
They also owe a great deal to the considerable assets bequeathed to the authorities that have managed healthcare in Paris over the centuries.
The Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), the umbrella body that manages and operates the hospitals of the Paris region, pays close attention to major trends in healthcare such as asset optimisation and the generation of additional revenue.
Third-party revenue in health infrastructure usually conjures up images of energy production and resale, or of shops and commercial services leased and operated on hospital premises.
Sometimes, however, the revenue comes from more unexpected sources. In Burgundy, the wine sale of the Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges brings in around €2 million in a typical year for the hospital and the care home they run. Its big sister, the Hospices de Beaune auction, raised a jaw-dropping €18.75 million in a single evening in 2025 to fund investment in the local hospital. And J. M. Barrie gave the rights to Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, which still benefits from them today.
Should we carry on with glamorous examples of unexpected revenue for health facilities? Well, think of the number of commercials, television series and films shot in a hospital setting, or needing a hospital as the backdrop for a couple of scenes.
Producers have two options. They can build a whole set and hire consultants with health expertise to make it credible, or they can rent a real hospital. The Paris hospitals offer just that, with a comprehensive range of services, from the rental of a room, a wing or a whole building to… clothes!
The brochure produced by AP-HP is comprehensive and marketing-savvy.
It highlights the chance to film in remarkable buildings, from the banks of the Seine to the suburbs, and a variety of architecture ranging from the early seventeenth century to the most recent constructions.
Very pragmatically, it lists the settings available: from basements and underground structures to offices, and from wards to operating theatres and their annexes, the Paris hospitals can meet every visual need.
It also describes the services on offer to productions, such as the loan of objects from the collection of the AP-HP museum, which holds some 12,000 items gathered since 1934 and covering medicine and hospital life from the Middle Ages onwards (particularly handy for period pieces).
They can even help with costumes: scrubs for health professionals or gowns for patients, the hospitals have them all!
This range of services brings in substantial revenue for the hospitals.
Even hospitals in Marseilles have followed suit, offering days of filming from €3,000 a day.
The activity has become professionalised, with communication officers at each AP-HP hospital managing the shoots. AP-HP describes its offer on a dedicated page of its website.
And from a legal perspective, one may ask: where does this fit within the mandate of public hospitals?
Quite naturally, it falls under the charges for the occupation of the public domain, which are governed by administrative law.
In short, it is compatible with the public law rules governing the organisation and provision of the public service, provided it does not disrupt the service, does not infringe the privacy of patients or staff, and confers no rights over the premises on the holder of the licence.
Prices, with a breakdown of all the options, are available on request from the communication teams. A good use of public assets to ease the burden of operating costs? Too far removed from the core public service?
Or, more prosaically, a range of services that helps public authorities to “sweat the assets”, alongside the commercial activities that routinely take place in hospitals?
Perhaps it simply shows the streak of innovation at the heart of public asset optimisation in many countries, and the growing tendency to see health facilities as part of city life.
Far from standing on the sidelines, the Paris hospitals operate at the heart of their communities and, like any other economic and social actor, find solutions amid projects, initiatives and budget constraints.
We are only too aware that this post comes nowhere near the glamour of a single episode of Grey’s Anatomy, or of ER in the days when George Clooney played Dr Doug Ross. We hope, nonetheless, that it offers a thought-provoking perspective on how health managers optimise the use of health assets and deliver value for money.
So, do we keep this take or, as they say in Hollywood: back to one?
Dr Gwen Dhaene
