HCA Healthcare Inc. (NYSE: HCA) executives are satisfied with the performance of their ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) despite a slight decline in surgery volume. Outpatient surgery volume for HCA dipped 1.7% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the prior-year period, CFO William Rutherford said during HCA’s April 24 earnings call. That breaks down to a 2.1% decline in hospital-based outpatient surgeries and 1% in ASCs. “On the hospital side, we saw a little bit of weakness in our ortho-related cases,” Rutherford said. “On the ASC side, it was really more of the low-acuity service lines like ophthalmology and ENT [ear, nose and throat] that drove the statistical decline.”
Read the full article: HCA Healthcare Remains Bullish on ASCs Despite Volume Dip //
Source: https://ascnews.com/2026/04/hca-healthcare-remains-bullish-on-ascs-despite-volume-dip/