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McCarthy Survey Reveals Concern Over Readiness of U.S. Healthcare Facilities to Meet Patient Care Demands

Posted on: Tuesday, 8 November 2005, 12:00 CST

According to a recent survey of healthcare executives across the country, fifty-two percent of those hospital chief executive and chief financial officers surveyed do not believe our nation's healthcare facilities will be able to adequately meet patient care demands over the next five years. The survey, facilitated by McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (www.mccarthy.com), questioned hospital CEOs, CFOs and Facility Managers nationwide. The survey respondents represented 31 states.

"McCarthy has been building healthcare facilities for more than 100 years," commented Michael D. Bolen, chief executive officer and chairman of McCarthy. "This survey was designed to assess trends in healthcare facility change and to better understand the greatest challenges facing U.S. hospitals as they plan for, design and build future hospital projects. The results of this survey provide a snapshot of the top issues healthcare executives faced over the past five years and what they see ahead in the next five."

Respondents were asked to identify, in their view, "the most significant change in the healthcare industry over the past five years." The most frequently cited responses were: Technology (20%); Reimbursements (18%); Patient Care/Delivery (16%); Regulatory/Legislative Oversight (14%); and Cost of Construction (8%). When asked to rate industry issues on a sliding scale as to their impact on healthcare construction at their facility over the past five years, respondents identified Access to Capital (89%), Industry Competition (84%), Information Technology (83%), Patient Satisfaction (80%), and Insurance/Medicare/Medicaid (62%) as those areas having the greatest impact.

Respondents were then asked to identify what they believe will be "the most significant change in the healthcare industry potentially impacting their business over the next five years." The most frequently cited responses were: Reimbursements (23%); Labor Shortage (12%); Demographics (12%); Technology (11%); and Regulatory/Legislative Oversight (11%). More than 62% believed that their identified change would have a significant impact on their facilities/construction needs.

Facility Managers were asked to rank on a sliding scale 23 construction-related areas indicating those that are never a problem to those that are always a problem. As-built documentation was the top problem identified on the survey with 60% of respondents ranking it as a significant issue. Design-document errors, start-up/commissioning process, and completion of punch list items followed with 46% of respondents ranking these as often problematic.

"Our survey reveals that declining reimbursements, labor shortages and aging baby boomers are seen by many healthcare executives as the most significant changes expected to impact the industry over the next five years," commented Bolen. "The impact of this pull between an increasing demand for services and a simultaneous reduction in financial resources available will require even greater creativity from the design and construction communities to meet hospital needs. Continuing to refine the building process, from start to finish, is imperative to ensure success."

Founded in 1864, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (www.mccarthy.com) is one of the nation's oldest and largest privately held construction firms and has been leading the way in healthcare construction for more than 100 years. With the completion of its first healthcare project at Farmington State Hospital in southeast Missouri in 1904, McCarthy has since become one the nation's leading healthcare builders. Ranked among the top five healthcare builders by Modern Healthcare since the magazine began this annual ranking, McCarthy has completed more than 600 healthcare projects valued at approximately $10 billion in construction value across the United States. The 100 percent employee-owned firm has offices in St. Louis, Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Newport Beach, San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento.

Source: Business Wire

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