Healthcare DIVE October 4, 2022
Longer patient stays are racking up higher costs, but hospitals aren’t getting paid more.
A lack of capacity in nursing homes is hurting hospitals’ ability to discharge their patients, giving rise to steadily increasing lengths of stay and stressing systems as they attempt to navigate a precarious operational environment coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Healthcare Dive review of recent financial filings found that even as overall inpatient admissions fell, large hospital operators reported longer lengths of stay, along with difficulties discharging patients, compared to prior years. That trend was evident across both nonprofit and for-profit operators, and contributed to waning operational income for many systems.
“What we’re seeing is more organizations have inpatient discharges that are below what...
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