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Hospitals expect to increase spending for health IT and construction while investments for medical equipment continue to drop, according to a recent survey released by Premier, an alliance of hospitals dedicated to improving health care performance.
The survey showed that overall health capital spending is projected to decline next year. Of the 617 hospital executives and managers surveyed, only 41 percent anticipate increasing capital spending compared with last year — a steady drop from 42 percent in 2011 and 46 percent in 2010.
Forty-three percent of respondents expect health IT to be their biggest capital investment in 2013, while 34 percent list infrastructure and construction as their largest projected expenditure. In contrast, executives forecast spending on imaging, surgical, clinical and lab equipment to drop by more than 23 percent from just six months ago.
Many hospitals are looking to improve supply chain efficiency to stretch their budgets, and product standardization was cited by nearly 33 percent of respondents as their top investment in this arena.
According to Premier's director of communications, Alven Weil, increasing reliance on value analysis leads hospitals to base purchasing decisions on clinical outcomes, not just costs. "As hospitals streamline their list of vendors through product standardization, it often leads to equipment spending cuts," Weil told DOTmed News.
With billions of dollars of Medicare cuts set to take effect soon, it's no surprise that waste reduction is an ongoing priority for hospitals — they stand to lose about $39 billion in the next ten years from automatic budget reductions alone. In fact, reimbursement cuts were cited by 74 percent of respondents as the number one trend impacting hospitals. A growing number of respondents — up from 12.4 percent in 2011 to 24 percent — also foresee a decrease in patient admissions.
Premier President of Supply Chain Services Durral Gilbert said, "Whether due to lower reimbursement or fewer patients, health systems are making tough choices on how to most effectively and efficiently provide care. It is clear they consider the value-analysis process of using integrated data to improve outcomes and reduce costs paramount in the current health care environment."
