Financial challenges continued to rank No. 1 on the list of hospital CEOs’ top concerns in 2008, with patient safety and quality their second most prominent concerns, according to the American College of Healthcare Executives’ (ACHE) annual survey of top issues confronting hospital CEOs.
In the survey, ACHE asked respondents to rank 12 issues affecting their hospital in order of importance and to identify specific areas of concern within their top three choices. Seventy-seven percent of respondents cited financial challenges as one of their top three concerns, up from 70 percent in 2007. Forty-three percent identified patient safety and quality as a major concern, while care for the uninsured was cited by 41 percent of respondents.
Within the category of financial challenges, respondents identified Medicaid reimbursement (83%), bad debt (78%), and increasing staff and supply costs (75%) as their top three specific concerns.
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