CHICAGO – October 26, 2023 – A new report from Strata Decision Technology and Syntellis Performance Solutions found that U.S. healthcare organizations are experiencing exponential growth in demand for outpatient care services while suffering sizable losses in some areas of inpatient care.
The special-edition Strata and Syntellis Performance Trends report was released in conjunction with Strata’s annual LIFT23 user conference. This first-ever joint publication brings together StrataSphere and Axiom financial, operational, and claims data from more than 2,000 hospitals and 135,000 physicians across the country for even more robust insights on national healthcare industry trends. The latest data show ongoing increases in physician practice revenues, as well as gains for hospitals across patient volumes, revenues, and operating margins. At the same time, many organizations continue to struggle with elevated costs and ever-evolving patient preferences.
“Our nation’s vital healthcare organizations continue to face immense challenges including elevated costs, long-running labor issues, severe losses in some areas of inpatient care, and escalating demand for outpatient services,” said Steve Wasson, chief data and intelligence officer for Strata Decision Technology. “Despite revenue and margin gains, overall margins remain narrow and financial pressures continue to build. To ensure the long-term financial health of their organizations, healthcare leaders must understand these trends and respond with proactive, data-driven strategies.”
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Mounting demand for outpatient services is driving higher outpatient revenue as patients continue to demand care in less expensive and more convenient ambulatory settings. According to the report, outpatient revenue jumped 11.6% from July to August 2023 and was up 10% compared to August 2022.
Orthopedic care trends further illustrate the shift, with outpatient volumes for the specialty more than 33 times higher than inpatient volumes in May 2023. Outpatient orthopedic volumes for the average health system rose 29.9% from 373,266 per month in January 2022 to 484,857 per month in May 2023. By comparison, inpatient orthopedic volumes rose to 14,304 per month in May 2023.
Some areas of inpatient specialty care are a persistent drain on hospitals finances. For example, the median hospital lost an average of $3,630 for each inpatient orthopedic visit in May 2023. The total margin per case for individual outpatient orthopedic visits was $25 for the same period. While still low, the data show hospitals saw consistently higher margins for outpatient orthopedic care.
