Predicting what lies ahead for hospitals and their bottom lines is a tricky undertaking. Who could have predicted, after all, that the COVID-19 pandemic would force managers to revisit nearly everything they thought they knew about their facilities, from access control and sanitization to air filtration and occupancy levels? Nonetheless, while COVID-19 will continue to impact facilities and operations and more unexpected events certainly will play out in 2021, managers are more likely to see the expansion and evolution of existing trends. Consider hospital consolidation, for example.

This trend is likely to increase at a rapid pace in 2021, according to Fierce Healthcare. The hospital industry had a large trend of consolidation before the pandemic. But this is likely to be accelerated as some smaller, independent hospitals face revenue shortfalls caused by low patient volumes, according to an outlook report from Fitch Ratings.

These smaller providers might need to align with larger providers after the pandemic starts to subside, according to the report. Mergers are also likely to continue as health systems pivot toward more virtual care, according to a report from consulting

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