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 last week.

This isn't a novel approach. As we reported last year, credit rating agencies, banks, bond insurers and other financial institutions already take a look at the soundness of a healthcare organization's IT plans [1] at many points in their analytical process, including when they consider investing, when they're underwriting bond issues or when they're rating the soundness of these bonds. But anytime a powerhouse like S&P makes noises on a subject, people listen.

In S&P's case, the firm says it's going to drill down into whether a hospital's medical technology investments made sense and what impact they had. However, the fact that S&P feels it necessary to make formal comments on this issue suggests that analysts may  base more of their assessment on IT strategy, investments and deployments than they had in the past.

To learn more about S&P's criteria:
- read this Modern Healthcare article [2] (reg. req.)

ALSO:  How can one healthcare organization compare its level of IT investment to another?  One not-for-profit group has been gathering IT investment data in an effort to make accurate comparisons possible. Article [3]

Related Articles:
Health IT plans affect financial ratings [4]
Study: Hospital execs stress IT investment for coming years [5]
HIMSS: Patient safety top reason for IT investment [6]
PwC: Hospital IT can lower death rates [7]