Demand for outpatient care escalates heading into 2024

The latest data show that hospitals and health systems nationwide continue to see sizable growth in outpatient demand, as patients increasingly opt for more convenient and accessible care options. 

It’s a phenomenon made possible by medical advancements in recent decades that have made it safer to conduct many surgeries, procedures, and other healthcare services away from the more robust infrastructure and resources of inpatient settings. As a result, hospitals are experiencing fundamental shifts in patient volumes and revenues. 

Recent data from more than 1,300 U.S. hospitals show significant growth in outpatient revenues over the past year. December 2023 marked the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year increases in outpatient revenue. The metric was up 8.7% compared to December 2022 and jumped 15.7% versus two years ago in December 2021, according to Axiom^TM Comparative Analytics data. 

The growth was consistent throughout 2023. From January through December 2023, outpatient revenue was up 9.8% versus 2022 and jumped 18.8% versus 2021. 

Hospitals also saw increases in outpatient revenue as a share of overall gross revenue, measured as the inpatient/outpatient adjustment factor. The metric was up 3.1% for 2023 versus 2022 and 6.8% for 2023 versus 2021.

Hysterectomy procedures reflect care setting shifts

To dive deeper, analyses of trends in hysterectomies across both clinical and claims datasets provide further evidence of the shift from inpatient to outpatient care. With about 600,000 hysterectomies performed in the U.S. annually, it is one of the most common surgeries for women.  

An analysis of clinical data over the past five years shows that hysterectomies are gradually moving away from inpatient settings, with most of such surgeries now done in outpatient settings.