By Aditya Samal
(Reuters) -HCA Healthcare Inc on Friday reported better-than-expected results and raised its forecasts for 2023 on improved staffing that has allowed the hospital operator to conduct more surgeries, lifting its shares by over 7% in premarket trade.
Last year, a spate of resignations by healthcare staff due to pandemic-related fatigue forced hospitals to pay large premiums for new hires, but first-quarter costs neared pre-pandemic levels as workers rejoined the force.
The U.S. government often received less than 200 reports of hospitals reporting daily critical staff shortage during the quarter, compared to over 1,000 reports at the start of January last year, according to federal data, indicating the acute crunch has largely been mitigated.
Hospital bellwether HCA’s upbeat earnings also boosted shares of rival operators, with Tenet Healthcare jumping nearly 6% and Community Health Systems rising 5%.
Increased staffing at HCA helped with volumes, as inpatient surgery cases rose 2.8% and outpatient surgery cases climbed 3.5% in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, staffing costs, with salaries and benefit expenses accounted for 45.4% of its revenue, 1 percentage point lower than the number last year.
HCA reported an adjusted profit of $4.53 per share, according to Refinitiv calculations, compared with estimates of $3.93 per share.
Revenue stood at $15.59 billion, above analysts’ expectation of $15.27 billion.
“These impressive trends in the first quarter appear to be setting HCA up for a stronger year than anticipated, and management has materially increased its outlook for 2023,” Morningstar analyst Julie Utterback said.
HCA now sees its 2023 adjusted profit in the range of $17.25 to $18.55 per share, above its previous forecast of $16.40 to $17.60. It also raised its revenue forecast range to $62.5 billion to $64.5 billion.
(Reporting by Aditya Samal and Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)