Hospital execs say inpatient volume growth isn’t rebounding

A new survey of hospital administrators shows their inpatient volumes continue to slump as patients flock to cheaper outpatient settings for services like heart surgeries, hip replacements and urological procedures.

Leerink Partners, the investment bank that released the survey of nearly 50 mostly not-for-profit hospital administrators, wrote that its results are “modestly positive” for hospitals, whose executives reported inpatient utilization increased 0.7% in the second quarter of 2018, down from 1% in the second quarter of 2017. Meanwhile, the survey found ambulatory surgery center utilization was up 1.4% in the second quarter, down from 2.2% at the same time in 2017. Outpatient utilization growth fell to 1.1% from 2.5% in 2017.

“It was even weaker than many of...