By Robert King / May 2, 2022
Outpatient volumes and revenue for hospitals and health systems showed a robust rebound in March as expenses eased due to fewer extremely sick patients, a new report said.
Consulting firm Kaufman Hall released its latest hospital flash report Monday (PDF) detailing the impact of system finances for the month of March. A key takeaway from the report is that while actual hospital margins were negative for the third month in a row, outpatient revenues had a massive bump. 
“While the road to recovery remains long for many hospitals, these trends indicate some pressures of the pandemic may be lifting,” said Erik Swanson, senior vice president of data and analytics with Kaufman Hall, in a statement.
Outpatient volumes have been persistently hit hard by the pandemic as patients have turned to telehealth and avoided going to facilities to avoid contracting the virus.
However, Kaufman’s latest report showed that outpatient revenue was up 16.7% compared to February 2022 and 2.7% when paired against the same period last year. Outpatient revenues also grew by nearly 35% compared to the first month of the pandemic back in 2020.
