Healthcare executives believe reform will negatively affect facilities

April 23, 2010 | Chelsey Ledue, Contributing Editor

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SAN DIEGO – Nearly three-quarters of healthcare executives say healthcare reform will have a negative financial impact on their facilities, according to an AMN Healthcare poll.

More than 60 percent also say reform will have a somewhat or very detrimental effect on the quality of care their facilities are able to provide.

The San Diego-based healthcare staffing and management company’s “2010 Survey of Healthcare Executives: Initial Response to Healthcare Reform on Cost, Quality," targeted executives who will be responsible for implementing new measures included in the healthcare reform bill.

"The initial response to healthcare reform by the majority of hospital and medical group leaders is one of concern and it highlights that many healthcare executives are apprehensive about how reform will affect their facilities," said Susan Nowakowski, AMN Healthcare's president and CEO.

Only 22 percent of those surveyed were greatly or moderately pleased by the passage of healthcare reform, while 72 percent were either somewhat concerned or very concerned about passage of the new law.

Other findings:

63 percent of respondents said health reform will have a somewhat detrimental or very detrimental effect on the quality of care their facilities are able to provide;
23 percent of executives said healthcare reform will have a somewhat beneficial or very beneficial effect on the quality of care their facilities are able to provide patients;
66 percent of respondents said healthcare reform will have a somewhat detrimental or a very detrimental effect on the overall quality of care all Americans are able to receive;
27 percent of respondents said healthcare reform will have a somewhat beneficial effect or a very beneficial effect on the overall quality of care Americans will receive;
A majority of healthcare executives believe reform will create more patient demand for the services they offer and therefore a need for more clinicians;
62 percent of those surveyed said healthcare reform will cause them to add more physicians;
56 percent of respondents said reform will cause them to add more nurses, and 56 percent said healthcare reform will drive them to add more allied healthcare professionals.

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SteveW says: Impact of Health Care Reform

April 27, 2010 | 9:41AM GMT

I think we need to understand that health care reform, by design, will need to impact health care organizations. We must reduce the overall cost of health care in this country and the obvious conseqence of that is that there will be an impact on the industry. I do not see this as a bad thing, but a necessary process. Once we address the dysfunctional reimbursement systems and general issue of overtreatment in the health care system, this will be even more pronounced. This is a postitive outcome overall. So please do not be misled by articles or surveys that paint this as a negative. This is like asking the banking industry if financial reform is good or bad. It is not about them, but about us, the consumers.