Dear Readers, Welcome to the September issue of the National Hospital Flash Report. In this issue, we observe declining profitability across the country for only the second month this year, driven primarily by less-than-expected revenue performance, and mixed expense performance nationwide. We highlight these issues in this month’s report, and provide some predictions for improved performance next month.

This month’s Spotlight dives into the recent finding that revenue growth slightly outpaced expense growth in the last several months, as confirmed through Kaufman Hall data and by Moody’s. The article also explores how hospital leaders should think about the impacts of revenues, expenses, and volumes on Operating Margins on a go-forward basis.

We are excited about our increasing readership, along with the excellent feedback and suggestions we have received. We welcome your comments, and continue to incorporate your ideas into our publications. We continue to let the data guide us as we work on some new and exciting topics for upcoming Spotlight sections using our national database.

Thanks,