Healthcare Leaders Optimistic for 2022 Despite Challenges

Employee recruitment and retention considered the industry’s greatest challenge

January 10, 2022 |5 min read

Capital One’s annual Healthcare Corporate Finance Survey found that after another COVID-focused year, healthcare leaders have an optimistic outlook for business performance at the onset of 2022. Over the next year, more than three-quarters (76%) of executives expect their business will perform better compared to the last 12 months, with just 2% expecting a drop in performance during that time period.

However, despite a positive outlook for the year ahead, leaders in the healthcare space remain concerned about staffing issues. Capital One’s survey found more than half (55%) of respondents consider recruiting and retaining employees to be the industry’s greatest challenge, followed by regulation and reimbursement (41%).

The research found the biggest factors impacting recruiting and retaining employees include a lack of skilled applicants (27%), skilled applicants being outside of the pay range (22%) and competition from more flexible employers (20%).

“Despite continued pressures on the healthcare industry, it’s encouraging to see that most healthcare leaders are optimistic about business performance for the year ahead. However, that optimistic outlook may quickly change if leaders don’t prioritize finding solutions for recruitment and retention challenges,” said Capital One Head of Healthcare Corporate Finance Andrew Brode. “As we navigate the ongoing pandemic, the great resignation and a competitive job market, it’s critical that healthcare leaders strategically invest their time and resources to attract the right talent, or they may find their workforce isn’t equipped to deal with the expected growth their business is hoping to see in the next year.”

Additional findings from the survey included:

Nearly half of executives (49%) expect alternative site (PPM, behavioral, urgent care, therapy) to have the most M&A activity over the next 12 months, followed by outsourced pharmaceutical services (33%) and post-acute (SNF, IRF, home health & hospice) (31%).
Nearly half of the respondents plan to raise capital in the next 12 months. Of those who plan to raise capital, 32% plan on turning to private equity, 21% plan to utilize bank debt and 8% anticipate using public equity or convertible bonds.

Capital One Healthcare is a leading provider of financial services to the healthcare industry. Customers across all healthcare sectors—including senior housing, healthcare services, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, healthcare IT and medical offices—rely on Capital One Healthcare to finance acquisitions, refinance existing debt, support working capital needs and fund growth initiatives. With in-depth expertise, our team of professionals creates solutions tailored to meet the needs of our customers.

About Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., had $305.9 billion in deposits and $425.4 billion in total assets as of September 30, 2021. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has branches located primarily in New York, Louisiana, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “COF” and is included in the S&P 100 index.

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To find out more about Capital One’s commercial healthcare financing solutions, visit capital.one/healthcare.

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