Small hospitals will likely demonstrate the same general rating stability as the overall not-for-profit healthcare sector through the remainder of 2007 and into 2008, with strong hospitals performing well and weaker hospitals experiencing ongoing challenges, according to a new Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services report published Oct. 3. S&P defines small hospitals as those with less than $90 million in net patient revenue.
The 2007 U.S. not-for-profit healthcare small hospital median ratios that are tracked by S&P indicated modest improvements since 2005, although, like the broader sector ratios, there were mixed results in a few cases, according to the report, U.S. Not-for-Profit 2007 Small Hospital Median Ratios Show Modest Improvements. In general, financial performance at the highest-rated hospitals improved slightly over 2005; however, S&P witnessed a decline in a few key metrics and median ratios, most notably in operating margins and days’ cash on hand. Hospitals at the lower end of the credit spectrum demonstrated improvement across most financial metrics.
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