Inpatient Admissions Decreasing; Implications for Hospital-Based Labs

I have commented previously about the decrease in the yearly number of hospital inpatients (see:Need for More"Disruptive" CEOs of Health Systems; What Does This Mean?; The Case of the"Disappearing Hospital Beds"; Implications for Pathologists). Evidence of this decline was provided in the following article: Trends in Hospital Inpatient Stays in the United States, 2005-2014. For the period 2005-2014, graphs in this article show that all types of inpatient stays declined by 6.6%, medical declined by 5.3%, and surgical defined by 12.0%. This trend continues unabated to this day (see:HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS DOWN, COSTS RISE). Contributing to the decline in surgical admissions is probably the growth of standalone surgicenters which have developed outpatient hip and knee replacements that are less expensive than hospitals (see: Tug of War between Hospitals and Surgicenters for Knee Replacements). For this reason, they are often favored by health insurance companies and corporations for their employees.There is thus unanimity of opinion and data indicating that inpatient admissions are in a continuing decline. I have also suggested in previous blogs that a new first tier of primary outpatient care is emerging in the form of walk-in retail health clinics like CVS'sMinuteClinics and urgent care centers (see:Physicians Are Disappearing from the Front Line of Healthcare; Rapid Growth of Urgent Care Clinics; Cost Competition for Hospital ERs). Inpati...
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