by
John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter | October 22, 2020
Hospital leaders are concerned about the financial future of their institutions without a COVID-19 vaccine or treatment
Almost three-quarters of hospital executives are worried about how their organizations will fare financially without an effective treatment or vaccine for COVID-19.
That’s the sentiment that Kaufman Hall found and reported in its “2020 State of Healthcare Performance Improvement Report: The Impact of COVID-19.” The firm adds that one-third of respondents saw operating margins drop in excess of 100% in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the same time period in 2019.
"The challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected nearly every aspect of hospital financial and clinical operations," said Lance Robinson, managing director of Kaufman Hall. "Organizations have responded to the challenge by adjusting their operations and strengthening important community relationships."
More than 22% saw expenses rise by more than 50%. The greatest of these increases has been for personal protective equipment (52% of respondents) and nursing staff labor (34%). Keeping up with these added costs has been challenging due to the substantial drop in volumes that have turned the operating margin of many organizations from positive to negative, especially in the early months of the pandemic. While volumes did start to recover over the summer, oncology is the only area where over one-half of respondents (60%) have seen volumes return to more than 90% of pre-pandemic levels.
Hospitals in the first few months of the pandemic saw a 150% year-over-year decline in operating margins. Decreases were primarily driven by restrictions on surgical and elective operations and led many not-for-profit hospitals previously operating on thin margins into high amounts of debt, according to Kaufman Hall’s National Hospital
Flash Report in April. A follow-up
report in September found margins to still be down 7.9 percentage points since the start of the year compared to the first eight months of 2019 (2.3 percentage points down when including federal aid).
Almost all respondents (95%) have worked to minimize exposure to other patients in waiting rooms, with 73% creating “clean” facilities for non-COVID patients. In addition, 75% increased monitoring and resources to reduce staff burnout and address issues of mental health to combat the impact of the pandemic on healthcare workers.
Despite these negative findings, some good has come out of the situation, with 56% of respondents seeing 100% growth in the number of telehealth visits their organizations provided, particularly in the early months of the pandemic. And while telehealth utilization has dropped somewhat as providers reopen, it is still well above pre-pandemic levels.
