01 Feb Hospitals Faced ‘Worst Financial Year Since the Start of the Pandemic’ in 2022

Source: FierceHealthcare.com

Hospitals managed to snap an 11-month streak of negative operating margins in December, though the turnaround is little consolation to a sector that weathered “the worst financial year since the start of the pandemic,” Kaufman Hall wrote in its most recent National Hospital Flash Report.

Hospitals had entered 2022 in the midst of an omicron surge that pushed the advisory firm’s industrywide operating margin index measure down to -3.4% and -3.5% in January and February, respectively.

Returning volumes and gradual easing of the “competitive” labor market helped hospitals recover over the course of the year, Kaufman Hall wrote, culminating in December as the hospitals finally broke into the black with a 0.2% operating margin index.

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