What You Should Know:
– Hospitals’ financial performance declined slightly in September compared to the previous month, according to the latest National Hospital Flash Report from Kaufman Hall. Across the board, there was a decrease in patient volume during this period compared to 2022.
– The latest Physician Flash Report reveals the need for organizations to be more strategic about how they utilize and retain providers and support staff. Physicians are operating at record-high levels of productivity compared to recent years; however, physicians are receiving less pay per unit of work, indicating a discrepancy in compensation for their increased productivity.
Challenges for Hospitals
– Labor Costs Challenge: While overall expenses may be softening as volume decreases, labor costs remain a significant challenge for hospitals and health systems.
– Support Staff Ratio: The ratio of support staff to providers has decreased as healthcare teams strive to keep up with increased productivity.
– Strategic Staffing and Retention: Organizations are advised to examine their staffing mix and be strategic about deploying support staff to support their most productive providers. In a competitive labor market, retaining support staff is important, and this can be achieved by establishing career paths and advancement opportunities.
Report Data Backround/Methodology
The reports draw on data from Syntellis Performance Solutions, which is based on information from over 1,300 hospitals and more than 200,000 providers. The methodology of the Physician Flash Report has been updated to allow for better comparison against benchmarks. The change involves using rolling 12-month figures instead of annualized quarterly figures, and expressing differences in metrics as the median change rather than the change in median.
