Inflation, labor shortages, mounting demand for outpatient care, and other factors continue to put pressure on healthcare finances.
Read this special-edition, extended report to dive deeper into hospital, health system, and physician practice key performance metrics.
Key findings include:
- Hospital finances are stabilizing as hospitals saw higher patient volumes and revenues, and a sixth consecutive month of positive operating margins following more than a year of losses
- Outpatient demand continues to grow, driving higher outpatient revenues; outpatient knee replacement volumes, for example, are more than 5X higher than inpatient volumes
- Hospitals sustain sizable losses on inpatient specialty care, as evidenced by an average loss of $3,630 per inpatient orthopedic visit, and persistent losses for inpatient hip and knee replacements
- Hospital labor costs remain high, but use of contract nurses is declining, with the share of hours worked by contract nurses down to 9.2% in August from a 12-month peak of 13.4% in February
- Physician practices require greater financial support, but see more demand as reflected by higher investments needed to supplement physician practice revenues, coupled with volume and productivity increases for practices in key specialties