Shortt Janet
AORN J. 2014 Aug;100(2):177-87. doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2013.10.026.
At 18 months, the Great Recession of December 2007 to June 2009 is the longest recession since World War II. The recession led to soaring unemployment, resulting in loss of employment-based health insurance for millions of people. In addition to seeing increases in uninsured patients, hospitals experienced losses in their investment portfolios, which in turn increased bad debt, charity care, and uncompensated care nationwide. Hospital executives began to devise cost-cutting strategies to balance the rising debt, such as standardizing medical equipment, cutting staff positions, and delaying construction projects and capital expenditures as well as implementing value analysis strategies. The recession is officially over, and, although economic recovery has been slow and unemployment continues to be an issue, hospitals' net revenue started improving as of 2009 and hospital construction started increasing in 2010. Still, caution is warranted in the postrecession climate, because it is unknown what effects will be seen when the Baby Boomer generation begins using Medicare.
在18个月的时间里，2007年12月至2009年6月的大衰退是二战以来持续时间最长的衰退。这次衰退导致失业率飙升，数百万依靠就业获取医疗保险的人失去了保险。除了未参保患者人数增加外，医院的投资组合也遭受损失，这反过来又增加了全国范围内的坏账、慈善医疗和无偿医疗。医院管理人员开始制定成本削减策略以平衡不断增加的债务，比如使医疗设备标准化、削减员工岗位、推迟建设项目和资本支出以及实施价值分析策略。衰退已正式结束，尽管经济复苏缓慢且失业问题依然存在，但医院的净收入自2009年起开始改善，医院建设在2010年也开始增加。不过，在后衰退时期仍需谨慎，因为婴儿潮一代开始使用医疗保险时会产生何种影响尚不清楚。
