Struggling hospitals investing less in analytics, population health
Financial system transformation is taking center stage as a hospital technology priority as healthcare executives look to remain financially solvent. As such, many struggling hospitals are putting population health and analytics on the back burner, according to a survey from Black Book.
The research firm interviewed 2,600 hospital chief financial officers, chief information officers, business office managers, tech and financial staffers on financial systems software and services solutions between January and June 2014. Additionally, the business managers of 1,100 outpatient, alternative care and physician practices owned by hospital systems also submitted ballots and were evaluated separately.
Among the findings:
- 84 percent of struggling hospitals are deprioritizing population health, analytics, physician practice acquisitions and recruitment and patient engagement.
- 93 percent of struggling hospitals with continuing negative operating margins confirm they have prioritized capital investments in over the next year in coding, value-based support software, collections and RCM outsourcing.
- 91 percent of chief financial officers with negative 2013 operating margins are orchestrating their technology infrastructures to support value-based models, while the majority of revenue continues to be fee-for-service.
“The reimbursement challenges ahead to get paid may require several new applications, and the frank reality is that outdated, understaffed and failing current solutions could quickly close a marginally performing hospital for good,” said Doug Brown, managing partner of Black Book Market Research, in a statement.
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