Here are five notes on the company’s outpatient strategy:
1. Outpatient revenue was 34.1 percent of all patient revenue for the quarter. The company reported a 7.2 percent increase in outpatient surgery cases in the third quarter from the same period last year.
2. The company ended the third quarter on Sept. 30 with 123 freestanding outpatient surgery centers. In October, HCA acquired both Anchorage-based Alaska Surgery Center and Provo-based Central Utah Surgical Center.
3. “Our development pipeline of new outpatient facilities is robust, and we fueled that with investment,” CEO Sam Hazen said in an Oct. 22 earnings call transcribed by The Motley Fool. “We have a strong pipeline of projects that will come online in 2022 and 2023 that are connected to both our hospital platform as well as our outpatient platform.”
4. According to Mr. Hazen, the company has seen roughly 10 to 12 ASCs that began service in 2021. The company has also seen a “natural lift in acuity,” partly strategic and partly from outpatient migration, he said.
5. For the first three quarters of the year, the company reported a 17.9 percent increase in outpatient surgery cases, to 742,527.
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