After an "extremely difficult" 2022, hospitals and health systems are seeing signs of stabilization this year, but persistent workforce-related challenges are keeping costs high and contributing to patient access issues, according to Kaufman Hall's "2023 State of Healthcare Performance Improvement" report.
For its report, Kaufman Hall surveyed 106 hospital and health system leaders across the U.S. Most respondents were in executive leadership (62%) or finance (12%) roles.
Eight things to know:
1. Sixty-six percent of those surveyed said staffing shortages have required their organization to run at less than full capacity at some time over the past year.
2. Sixty-three percent of respondents are struggling to meet demand for patient access to their physician enterprise.
3. Thirty-two percent said patients' concerns or complaints about access to their physician enterprise are increasing.
4. Ninety-eight percent said they are pursuing one or more recruitment and retention strategies.
5. Ninety percent have raised starting salaries or the minimum wage.
6. Seventy-one percent are encountering distribution delays in their supply chain.
7. Sixty-percent are seeing decreasing utilization of contract labor.
8. Seventy-three percent reported an increased rate of claims denials.
Read the full report here.