Nearly three-quarters of healthcare executives surveyed earlier this month say healthcare reform will have a negative financial impact on their facilities, while more than 60 percent note that reform will have a somewhat or very detrimental effect on the quality of care their facilities are able to provide.
These are among key findings from the 2010 Survey of Healthcare Executives: Initial Response to Healthcare Reform on Cost, Quality, conducted by AMN Healthcare (NYSE: AHS), the nation's leading provider of comprehensive healthcare staffing and management services.
The survey was targeted to executives who will be among those responsible for implementing the new healthcare system put into place by healthcare reform.
"AMN's survey signals that 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 Chief Executive Officer.
Only about one in five of those surveyed (22 percent) were greatly or moderately pleased by the passage of healthcare reform, while almost three out of four (72 percent) were either somewhat concerned or very concerned about passage of the new law.
Similarly, 63 percent said health reform will have a somewhat detrimental or very detrimental effect on the quality of care their facilities are able to provide, while only about 23 percent of executives said that healthcare reform will have a somewhat beneficial or very beneficial effect on the quality of care their facilities are able to provide patients.
Sixty-six percent said that healthcare reform will have a somewhat detrimental or a very detrimental effect on the overall quality of care all Americans are able to receive, while 27 percent said that healthcare reform will have a somewhat beneficial effect or a very beneficial effect on the overall quality of care Americans will receive.
In addition, the survey suggests that the majority of healthcare executives believe reform will create more patient demand for the services they offer and therefore a need for more clinicians. Sixty-two percent of those surveyed said healthcare reform will cause them to add more physicians, 56 percent said reform will cause them to add more nurses, and 56 percent said healthcare reform will drive them to add more allied healthcare professionals.
The survey was sent by email to 7,000 healthcare executives on April 7, 2010, two weeks after health reform was signed into law by President Obama. One hundred seventy-two responses were received by April 15. A complete breakdown of AMN's 2010 Survey of Healthcare Executives: Initial Response to Healthcare Reform on Cost, Quality, is available at www.amnhealthcare.com.
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