More jobs on the horizon for hospitalists?

In what seems to be another vote of confidence that the worst of the recession is behind us, most hospital CEOs plan to hire more doctors and nurses in the next six months, a new survey reports.

In the survey of 285 hospital CEOs conducted by healthcare staffing company AMN Healthcare, a majority report a shortage of nurses (91%), pharmacists (86%) and allied healthcare professionals (79%). While 24% of CEOs report cutting back on nurse recruitment in the last six months, the same percentage report they have increased physician recruiting efforts in that time period.

Looking ahead, 93% expect to maintain or increase physician recruiting, while 89% expect to maintain or increase nurse recruiting, in the next six months. Only 11% say they will decrease recruitment of health professionals in the near future.

Labels: recession, recruitment

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 2:55 PM   0 Comments

Seeing red, or fading to black?

Are hospitals starting to recover from the recession? Depends on whom you ask.

A report issued this week by Thomson Reuters states that the median profit margin for U.S. hospitals rose to 8.4% in the second quarter of 2009, compared to 0.37% in the third quarter of 2008. The recovery, says a news release, occurred in various settings, from large academic hospitals to small community hospitals.

But the AHA reports that 34% of community hospital CEOs surveyed in August expect losses for the first half of 2009, up from 29% in the first half of 2008. While 11% of those CEOs report an improvement in their hospitals' ability to access capital since December 2008, 31% say their ability to do so is "continuing to get worse" and 58% say it is the same.

Other findings from the Thomson Reuters analysis:

• About 20% of hospitals had negative total margins in Q2 09-- similar to the rate seen before the recession started in late 2007. In Q1 09, 30% of hospitals were operating with negative margins. In Q3 08, half of U.S. hospitals were in the red.
• Hospitals' median days-cash-on-hand has increased from 90 days in Q1 09 to 146 days in Q2 09, which is higher than the historic long-term average.
• Hospitals have maintained a stable ratio of staffing levels per occupied bed during the recession, but total labor costs are down about 2.25% in Q2 09 due to reduced lengths of stay.
• Mean patient discharge volumes for all hospitals began declining shortly after the recession started, but moved into positive territory in Q2 09.
  

Additional findings from the AHA survey of 768 community hospital CEOs:

• 52% of hospitals see an increased need for subsidized services.
• 51% have reduced staff in response to economic challenges.
• 46% report a moderate to significant decrease in operating margins.
• 39% report a decrease in days-cash-on-hand.
• 79% of hospitals have had doctors seek an increase in pay for on-call or other service to the hospital.

Labels: finances, recession

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 4:27 PM   0 Comments