The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial situation of hospitals in Europe

Since 2020, the world has been facing a global pandemic of the infectious disease COVID-19 caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. It has a negative impact not only on the economy of individual countries, but also on the financial and property situation of business entities, and thus on the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world. The aim of this article is to present the results of the study and an assessment in terms of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development of the financial situation of hospitals in Europe after the first year of the pandemic in relation to the situation several years before the pandemic. The study covered the period from 2017 to 2020. An economic analysis based on basic statistical characteristics was conducted using the financial data of a survey population of 8,995 private and public hospital operating companies in Europe, including 2,769 from Western Europe and 6,226 from Eastern Europe. The research hypothesis was confirmed only for operating income (turnover), current ratio and solvency ratio, while it was not confirmed for asset situation. For the other analyzed economic quantities, heterogeneous results were obtained depending on the region of Europe in which the hospital is located.