Focus will be on macroeconomic concerns impacting hospital resources across the healthcare continuum, healthcare technology and the need for data interoperability.

ESO, the leading data and software company serving emergency medical services (EMS), fire departments, hospitals, and state EMS/trauma offices, today shared the trends it predicts will have the most impact on hospitals in 2023: hospital systems will continue to see global economic pressures impacting rural geographies, and technology will play an important role in optimizing healthcare.

“With the macroeconomic concerns heading into 2023, hospitals systems will need to think critically about 2023 budgets and create long-term strategies to maintain resources across the healthcare continuum,” said Dr. Brent Myers, Chief Medical Officer for ESO. “We may also see a greater reliance on digital investments as organizations in rural communities look to cut costs by reducing or eliminating in-patient services. Data interoperability will be essential to seamlessly integrate healthcare systems in order to connect the dots and efficiently improve patient care.”

Key Hospital Predictions for 2023:

• Hospital systems will continue to feel the impact of global economic pressures:
  
  Current economic concerns and pressures conspire to have an impact across hospitals and hospital systems. The cost of providing services will continue to increase due to inflation and supply chain issues. Additionally, workforce reductions will continue across multiple industries (hospitals won’t be immune), which will put pressure on hospitals as leadership will challenge teams to do more with less. Hospitals will think more deliberately about physical footprints – such as buildings and other property – that might be replaced with lower cost virtual options, especially in rural settings. Additionally, reshaping cost structure to ensure sustainability will be key, especially with more Medicare patients coming into hospital systems. Forward-looking hospital systems will look to capture revenue in new ways. Partnering with EMS will be critical, as well as working with professional organizations and legislatures to advocate for innovative ways to ensure financial security.
• Technology will play an even greater role as we evolve in the digital era:
  
  While we’ve seen technology continue to play an increased role in hospital systems and healthcare generally, leveraging digital (and virtual) systems will be even more significant in 2023 as hospitals will be affected by global economic uncertainty and behavior changes driven by the COVID pandemic the last few years. Telemedicine is here to stay. Access to smart, wearable technology (think smart watches and fitness trackers) will continue to evolve. Competitors will emerge to challenge the status quo and meet patients where they want to be met. For example, Zoom and Amazon are starting healthcare divisions that will provide access to information and medical resources in a new way. New roles are emerging based on the technological shifts in care delivery. Additionally, training and certification will become increasingly virtual and digital in 2023. Hospitals will need to understand and reconcile with the evolving digital era to succeed in 2023 and beyond.
• Rural geographies are at risk:
  
  Macroeconomic conditions and the emergence of digital/virtual options for healthcare will continue to place a disproportionate share of the impact on rural geographies. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid is proposing incentives for small, rural facilities to cease inpatient services other than emergency departments. Additionally, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO), more than 100 rural hospitals closed between 2012-2020. This trend will continue in 2023, potentially extending transport time for patients in rural areas. We will also see instances of greater technology and infrastructure investments in rural areas (such as faster Internet, better cell reception, more state legislative efforts, etc.) to serve this increasingly isolated population. Hospitals and hospital systems will need to evaluate their rural strategy to determine where and how investments (people, technology, physical locations, etc.) will allow them to best serve rural populations.
• Data interoperability continues to be essential:
  
  With hospital closures, hospitals merging and being acquired, and new platforms (smart watches, smart phones, etc.) providing additional input around a patient’s healthcare journey, systems that can talk to each other and share data will be essential. The ability to quickly and seamlessly integrate systems and access key data elements will separate hospitals from those that fail to those that succeed.

Download the 2023 Hospital Predictions white paper here.

About ESO

ESO (ESO Solutions, Inc.) is dedicated to improving community health and safety through the power of data. Since its founding in 2004, the company continues to pioneer innovative, user-friendly software to meet the changing needs of today’s EMS agencies, fire departments, hospitals, state EMS offices, and federal agencies. ESO currently serves thousands of customers throughout North America with a broad software portfolio, including the industry-leading ESO Electronic Health Record (EHR), the next generation ePCR; ESO Health Data Exchange (HDE), the first-of-its-kind healthcare interoperability platform; ESO Fire RMS, the modern fire Record Management System; ESO Patient Registry (trauma, burn and stroke registry software); and ESO State Repository. ESO is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit www.eso.com.

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