News
Nearly 90% of public hospitals are aware of their difficult business conditions without COVID-19 financial aids.
- December 6, 2022
Medical Data Vision Co., Ltd. (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Hiroyuki Iwasaki), which supports the development of “Public Hospital Management Enhancement Plan,” conducted a survey among public hospitals and asked the question, “Are you able to achieve current account surpluses even without COVID-19 financial aids?” and 13% of the hospitals answered “yes.” This indicates that 87% of public hospitals are aware of their difficult business situation.
The survey asked about the status of the development of the “Public Hospital Management Enhancement Plan (‘the plan’),” which the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications requires each public hospital to develop through the prefectural governments to ensure a sustainable regional medical care provision system. It was conducted online from August 24, 2022, targeting public hospitals nationwide, and 112 hospitals responded by October 31.
In response to the yes-no question, “Are you able to achieve current account surpluses even without COVID-19 financial aid?” 87% of the hospitals answered “no.” This indicates that nearly 90% of hospitals are aware of their difficult business situation. The results of these responses indicate that, with the growing possibility of a reconsideration of so-called COVID-19 financial aids, such as those paid to medical institutions that have secured beds for COVID-19, there is an increasing need for each hospital to plan in detail how it will achieve a surplus through the development of this plan and other measures. (The first pie graph).
Nearly 80% will develop a plan in the future
The most common response to the question of when to start developing the plan was “undecided / under consideration” (28%), followed by “already started” (22%), “October to December 2022” (16%), and “January to March 2023” (16%), etc. (see the second pie graph).
Each public hospital is required to develop the plan by FY2022 or FY2023, but nearly 80% of the hospitals have not started developing their plans yet.
42% of hospitals are considering at least one of the following: restructuring, rebuilding, or revising their management structure.
Additionally, 42% of the hospitals answered “yes” to the question, “Are you considering any one of the following: ‘restructuring,’ ‘rebuilding,’ or ‘revising the management structure’ of your hospital?” only 17% of the hospitals responded that they have “already started” developing their plans.
In response, Mr. Teruyuki Yamaoka, a partner and certified public accountant at Asuno Accounting Firm, who is also an advisor to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Business and Financial Management Enhancement Project, said that “restructuring,” “rebuilding,” and “revision of the management structure” of hospitals all require a considerable amount of knowledge and experience from the people in charge, and need to be handled over a long period. Furthermore, the management of public hospitals is facing a major turning point and increasing difficulty as they look to respond to the after COVID-19 and the Eighth Medical Care Plan. Under these circumstances, he said, he hopes that hospitals considering these initiatives will quickly get started in developing and implementing plans that will lead to enhanced management, as it can take up to two full years to develop a management enhancement plan.
