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380 hospital execs weigh in on the future

by Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter | October 27, 2014
Hospitals around the world are faced with rising costs and the pressure to improve quality of care, but they're still optimistic about their growth prospects for the coming year, according to a new report conducted by GE Capital. The report included interviews with over 380 senior hospital executives.

The report found that both private and the public hospitals have an optimistic outlook for the next 36 months — 90 percent of the private hospitals and 84 percent of the public hospitals expect growth.

Additionally, 46 percent of the private hospitals predict that it will lead to future profitability and 27 percent of the public hospitals also expect that.

The report also found that even with limited resources, the hospitals are delivering more care than they ever have before. The hospitals are also making strides in enhancing competitiveness, but in order to maintain that advantage they will have to start investing in new equipment.

Out of the investment and purchasing decisions that the hospital managers have to make, 16 percent of them are influenced by the need to replace aging equipment and 17 percent are based on the push for efficiency. The main reason hospitals are not investing — 30 percent — is because of the current economic environment.

"Hospitals are under immense strain, dealing with ongoing spending pressure and the pressing need for improved quality of care," Peter Krause, head of GE Capital's Healthcare Financial Services team, said in a statement. "It is encouraging, however, that hospitals are keen to adopt crucial new technologies that can not only advance treatments to patients, but also enable them to continue to achieve quality and efficiency gains that are necessary to win in this environment."

Despite their optimism, many of the hospitals — 40 percent — are expecting to get hit with increasing costs in the next year. But about 18 percent, mostly the private hospitals, expect the costs to decrease due to downsizing, aggregated purchasing, hospital consolidation and optimization.

"The environment for health care providers remains difficult. Hospitals are required to deliver more than ever before often with insufficient resources at their disposal and this trend is likely to persist," Heinz Kölking, president of the European Association of Hospital Managers, said in a statement. "However, the results show that many hospitals are confident in their ability to meet patient demands and to continue providing them with the best treatments available."

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