Not-for-profit hospitals ranked investing in health IT as their top capital spending priority, according to a survey conducted by Fitch Ratings, Modern Healthcare reports.
According to the survey, the hospitals said health IT can help them:
- Manage costs;
- Improve care quality; and
- Adopt new reimbursement models.
Not-for-profit hospitals expect capital spending -- particularly on health IT -- to either stay the same or increase over the next five years, the survey found.
However, hospitals might need to rethink their capital spending plans if the federal health reform law puts pressure on revenue, according to Fitch Ratings (Kutscher, Modern Healthcare, 5/17).