Admissions were down about one-third in April for HCA Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare and Community Health Systems compared to the year prior, with even higher declines recorded in surgeries and emergency department visits.
That's according to an initial data analysis on the effect COVID-19 had on U.S. hospital volume from researchers with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Michigan State University in East Lansing and the Commonwealth Fund. Their findings, derived from first-quarter financial filings and conference call transcripts for the nation's biggest publicly traded hospital operators, were published June 25.
Here is how admissions, surgery and ED volumes changed from April 2019 to April of this year for the for-profit operators. April is when many nonemergent services were halted to create capacity for possible COVID-19 surges. Year-over-year volume data for the fourth large publicly traded hospital operated, King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services, was unavailable.
HCA (Nashville, Tenn.)
Admissions: down 30 percent
Surgeries: down 63 percent*
ED visits: down 50 percent
*Note: Surgery volume for HCA is the weighted average of inpatient and outpatient surgeries, weighted by first quarter 2020 values.
Tenet (Dallas)
Admissions: down 33 percent
Surgeries: down 55 percent
ED visits: down 50 percent
CHS (Franklin, Tenn.)
Admissions: down 35 percent
Surgeries: down 70 percent
ED visits: down 45 percent
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