Use an automatic cost of living adjustment to maintain rent levels. Including a clause linking rent increases to the consumer price index (CPI) is a good way of maintaining appropriate levels of rent between lease renewals. The automatic nature of such adjustments avoids both the necessity for periodic large rent increases and adversarial monetary negotiations between the hospital and physician tenants. It also ensures that a hospital will maintain appropriate levels of rent during periods of financial instability when its bargaining position might otherwise be diminished.