Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health aims to bolster its outpatient network next year despite liquidity concerns due to "weak operating cash flows" and investment losses in the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, which ended Sept. 30, according to financial documents published Nov. 15.
In the fiscal first quarter, CommonSpirit reported a $441 million operating loss versus a $23 million gain the previous year. After factoring in nonoperating items such as investment losses, the system ended the quarter with a $738 million net loss, compared to a $397 million loss in the same period last year.
Part of CommonSpirit's strategy is to bolster its presence in certain markets, making them "more essential" by expanding its ambulatory offering and developing its integrated delivery networks, according to its earnings report.
The 142-hospital system recently added 19 ambulatory imaging centers across Texas and California, seven ASCs in Arizona and California, and six primary and urgent care centers in Washington and California. It also plans to expand behavioral health services across four locations in 2024, with up to eight more sites planned through 2028.
CommonSpirit leaders said the system's goal is to provide seamless care for patients across all care settings, either at an individual care setting or by managing a patient's journey across multiple settings.
"To accommodate that, CommonSpirit continues to expand our ambulatory and virtual care points and enhance connections across the continuum of care. As clinical innovation drives the continued transition of a range of traditionally acute-care services to lower acuity settings, we are expanding ambulatory care capacity," management said in its earnings statement.