S&P to monitor non-profit hospital tech spending

Over the next few years, credit rating firm Standard & Poor's plans to take a much closer look at the extent to which not-for-profit hospitals keep up with their peers in making technology investments while keeping finances otherwise in order. In fact, investment in advanced medical technology will be a key factor differentiating those with good and poor credit ratings, the firm said.

That being said, a strong technology investment program won't impress S&P all by its lonesome. The firm says it's going to look carefully at whether a hospital's medical technology investments made sense and what impact they had. Generally speaking, the firm warned, it still expects that given the pressures on the industry, hospital credit downgrades probably will outnumber upgrades in 2008, and possibly into 2009.

To learn more about S&P's plans:
- read this Modern Healthcare article (reg. req.)

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