ASCs Expecting Boom in Market Growth

ASCs may experience an increased crunch if payroll and supply cost continue to increase.

Inflation

According to Sg2 Healthcare Intelligence’s annual Impact of Change Forecast Highlights report, the ASC market is projected to grow by 25-percent by the end of the decade. This increase in market growth may lead to difficult choices in the near future. Already, administrators juggle increasing employee compensation costs, supply chain delays, and also an ever-tightening job market.

An April 7 article in The Wall Street Journal detailing job wage increases noted that employers are setting aside nearly 3.9-percent of payroll costs for employee wage increases in 2022. Furthermore, the healthcare industry itself is grappling with high inflation rates and other factors. These are resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. VMG Health notes in its Multi-Specialty ASC Benchmarking Study, that surgery centers spend $2.2 million on employee salary and wages. Therefore, this amounts to roughly 21.3-percent of net revenues.

Nursing Shortage

The expected rise in volume also adds additional pressure in the recruitment of nurses. A recent report from Incredible Health noted that 34-percent of nurse respondents intended to leave their position by the end of 2022, while a University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences report detailed that some states, such as California, will experience a deficit of over 44,500 nurses. A recent study from McKinsey & Company also projects a deficit of 200,000 to 450,000 nurses nationwide by 2025 alone.

The result of the shortage and tight job market is another required increase in compensation for experienced candidates. Some ASCs will possibly be unable to attract new nurses to fill vacant positions may. These centers will have trouble meeting the increased volume of patients seeking care, should the projection come to fruition.

“In a time when patients comparison shop for healthcare, they have high expectations,” Patsy Newitt of Becker’s said in a June 29^th article. “During medical visits, they expect to see ample staff for such tasks as setting up referrals and scheduling.”

With these projections or shortages and increasing volume, what can ASCs do to prepare? One of the best options is to focus on nursing recruitment.

Learn More

Learn more about some of the factors leading nurses to quit the field and how to combat them by checking out Confronting the Nursing Shortage on the PE GI Journal Blog.

If your ASC is looking for a corporate partner, learn more about our PE Center Solutions platform by visiting pegisolutions.com, calling us at 877.442.3687 or emailing: info@pegisolutions.com