Hospital Patient Volumes Had Slow Recovery in November

A report from Strata Decision Technology shows a decrease in volumes in hospitals during the month of November, despite a rise in COVID cases.

Strata Decision Technology released a report Thursday that found patient and procedure volumes decreased in hospitals nationwide during November.

The report examined several key metrics, including daily inpatient admissions, observations visits, emergency visits, and outpatient visits for nearly 300 hospitals across the country. The Strata analysis found a significant drop in volume last month.

Between October 28 to November 28 the National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker found:

• Daily inpatient admissions went down 2.1%
• Daily observation visits went down 10.1%
• Daily emergency visits went down 0.6%
• Daily outpatient visits went down 9.3%

Between November 14 and 28 the National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker found:

• Daily inpatient admissions went down 6.2%
• Daily observation visits went down 8.4%
• Daily emergency visits went down 3.7%
• Daily outpatient visits went down 18.4%

The National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker also looked at the volume data for November 2020 in comparison to November 2019 and found:

• Patient volumes are down 22.3% year-over-year
• Emergency encounters are down 21% year-over-year
• Outpatient volumes are up from last year due to care including telehealth visits

In September, Strata released a report which also found that lost patient volumes had not recovered over the course of six months.

The report suggested that "the new normal" may be 90% to 95% of previous patient volumes.