OR nonprofit health providers find room for expansion

Despite the financial uncertainty hospitals find themselves in, nonprofit health systems in Portland continue to find ways to finance ambitious capital projects. Legacy Health is spending $245 million on the children's hospital project. Oregon Health & Science University has committed $92 million in institutional funding to building a new office tower on the South Waterfront. Kaiser Permanente has a $344 million hospital under construction in Hillsboro. Oregon hospital revenues haven't fully bounced back from the plunge they took during the depths of the recession. Since 2008, credit rating firms have been busy downgrading nonprofit hospitals, and the outlook for nonprofit hospitals this year remains negative.