A new survey from Health Affairs shows most hospital and health system leaders are pronouncedly optimistic about the future of America's healthcare system and quality and cost savings in their organizations.
Seventy-four C-suite executives from large hospitals and health systems took part in the survey, including 46 CEOs, 17 presidents, four CFOs, three COOs and four other individuals with leadership titles. On average, their institutions employed 8,520 people and had annual revenues of $1.5 billion.
Here are some of the survey's key findings:
• 65 percent said that, by 2020, they believe the healthcare system as a whole will be somewhat or significantly better than it is today.
• 93 percent said the quality of care provided within their health system would somewhat or significantly improve by that time.
• 91 percent forecasted somewhat or significant improvements on metrics of cost within their health system by 2020, and 85 percent expect their organization to reduce its per patient operating cost by that time.
• Overall, the average operating cost reduction executives expect is 11.7 percent in a range from 0 to 30 percent.
• When asked to name the three most likely ways their organizations could reduce operating costs, 54 percent said reducing the number of hospitalizations, 49 percent said reducing the number of hospital readmissions and 39 percent said reducing the number of emergency room visits.
• In response to the same question above, 12 percent of executives said reducing support staff, 5 percent said reducing the organization's physician staff and 1 percent said reducing nurse staff.
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