According to PMR’s latest report “Non-public hospitals market 2017. Comparative analysis by voivodship and development prospects” both transformed non-public and private hospitals are uncertain about how they will function in the future system of basic hospital services provision. Generally, PMR’s survey of the managerial staff of those establishments found that despite their different ownership structures and services provided they face similar problems.
The network and contracting pose a challenge for all types of hospitals
In the nearest future the hospital market in Poland will undergo major changes. Therefore in its periodic survey of non-public hospital managers in Poland PMR asked what the key challenges in the functioning of their establishments were at the time. Not surprisingly, it turned out that the biggest problem was related to the provisions establishing the national hospital services system. Interestingly, though, only 4 in 10 hospitals consider that change to be the biggest problem. In this regard we noticed no substantial differences between transformed non-public hospitals and private hospitals.
Additionally, about a third of the hospitals are afraid of the NFZ’s new system for contracting services and that issue is undoubtedly related to the creation of the hospital network. Lowered valuations of procedures contracted by the NFZ are more of a problem for transformed hospitals which are less able to adjust their portfolios flexibly to the market conditions. However, that is not the key difficulty for hospitals. Likewise, the preparation for the NFZ liquidation is named by transformed hospitals more frequently than by private ones.
In turn, roughly one in five managers reports that the most serious challenge now is to find the funds needed to finance an investment project. That problem is named by transformed non-public hospitals definitely more often than by private establishments.
Also the response to digitisation proved interesting – a marginal share of hospitals consider it to be the biggest challenge of 2017, even though, as our survey reveals, many of them have not completed that process yet.
Transformed non-public hospitals more certain of their future than private ones
The certainty that the functioning of the establishment will not change in the next two years is greater among transformed non-public hospitals which are ate the same time more likely to be included in the network (those are more comprehensive facilities and their business is based first of all on NFZ contracts). Among private hospitals that certainty is much smaller. For that reason more of them intend to take steps providing them with another source of income, e.g. to expand their operations, actively seek new patients, e.g. through advertising, etc.
Monika Stefanczyk, Head Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Market Specialist
