A new survey by Enhance Healthcare Consulting reveals that nearly half of hospitals have actively sought an alternative to their current anesthesia provider in the last three years.
Around 100 hospital executives from across the nation responded to the survey. The survey respondent population is as follows:
- CEO — 53 percent
- CFO — 28 percent
- CNO — 13 percent
- COO — 6 percent
Here are six findings from the survey.
1. In the last three years, 49 percent of survey respondents have actively sought an alternative to their current anesthesia provider. However, only 50 percent of those respondents actually changed providers.
2. "What that says is even though you seek to change providers, about half of the time the incumbent group maintains their contract," says Howard Greenfield, MD, principal of Enhance Healthcare.
3. Of the 49 percent who actively sought an alternative to their current anesthesia provider, 68 percent used the request for proposal method, and 32 percent used a different method.
4. Forty percent of survey respondents who sought to change anesthesia providers did so because the subsidy was too high, while 34 percent sought the change because the service their current group was providing was inadequate in some way. Twenty-six percent sought the change because of issues with incumbent group leadership.
5. Of the survey respondents that changed providers, 28 percent saw subsidy levels increase, and 32 percent saw subsidy levels decrease.
6. Dr. Greenfield says the survey also indicates that every anesthesia group in the nation should be aware hospitals are putting out RFPs more often. "What we say is it's kind of like checking the oil under the hood. It's a good idea to do this to make sure you're getting the value from an anesthesia group you think you're getting," he added.