By HFT Staff

Following the financial pressures the healthcare industry incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, GP PRO, a division of Georgia-Pacific, conducted a survey of acute and post-acute healthcare providers to understand if those pressures remain and how providers are prioritizing their spending. 

According to the survey, for nearly two-thirds of respondents, margins are trending up; still all respondents stated that financial pressures remain due in large part to increased costs related to labor, PPE, cleaning and disposable supplies and preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Despite these pressures, over the next 12 months, healthcare providers anticipate investing time and resources into staffing and retention, improving margins and preventing HAIs.  

In regard to HAIs, preventing them is the top financial priority for the next 12 months for one-quarter of respondents. Yet a clear majority of respondents – 84 percent – noted that the number of such infections has somewhat or significantly increased since the onset of COVID, and 39 percent said preventing HAIs is worth investing more in than they currently do. For those 39 percent, that investment will go toward high-quality hand hygiene products, proper PPE, touchless restroom dispensers and easily accessible hand hygiene stations for staff as well as for visitors as providing the most value. 

According to Ashley Butler, vice president and general manager of skincare for GP PRO, the survey shed light on one such path forward, as 91 percent of respondents believe collaboration between infection preventionists and environmental services (EVS) departments is important in lowering HAI rates.