Volumes decreased across most metrics year-to-date. Adjusted Discharges were down 7.4 percent and Emergency Department Visits fell 19.2 percent. Operating Room Minutes rose 3.1 percent from January to March compared to the same period in 2020. Gross Operating Revenue (not including CARES) rose 4.4 percent year-to-date, while both Outpatient and Inpatient Revenue rose less than 4 percent. Total Expense per Adjusted Discharge, Labor Expense per Adjusted Discharge, and Non-Labor Expense per Adjusted Discharge all increased about 15 percent compared to the first three months of 2020.
Physician practices saw some signs of recovery in the second half of 2020, following significant disruption in the early months of the pandemic. The median Investment/Subsidy per Physician Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) fell 26 percent from a high of $289,268 in the second quarter to $213,118 in the fourth quarter, indicating the beginning of a return to pre-pandemic performance.
For the year overall, the median Investment/Subsidy per Physician FTE rose 6.8 percent from 2019 to $239,656, largely due to low patient volumes early in the year. Physician Compensation per FTE declined 1.6 percent from 2019 to $303,181 in 2020, as many health systems froze compensation levels during the pandemic. Overall physician productivity was down for the year, with Physician work Relative Value Units per FTE falling 8.4 percent from 2019 to 2020 due to the impacts of the pandemic.
Net Revenue per Physician FTE fell 6.3 percent from 2019 to a median of $566,773 in 2020 due to pandemic-fueled declines in patient volumes. Total Direct Expense per Physician FTE (including advanced practice providers or APPs) fell 4.9 percent—more than $40,200—from 2019 to $782,518 in 2020. Contributing factors included volume declines that led to lower overall expenses, and reductions in staff availability as many clinicians—particularly female physicians and APPs—had to stay home to care for children and others due to school closures and nationwide shutdowns.
The National Hospital Flash Report draws on data from more than 900 hospitals.
The Physician Flash Report includes national data from Axiom’s Comparative Analytics from Syntellis Performance Solutions, which contains data on nearly 100,000 providers representing more than 100 specialties.
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