From Boardroom to Bedside: How Financial Markets and ESG Shape Patient Care
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.3767Keywords:
Hospital Capital Expenditure, Healthcare Equity, Macroeconomics, Patient Experience, ESG in HealthcareAbstract
A lot of what a patient experiences is shaped before they even get to the hospital. Budgets, staffing, and hospital policy all affect what care looks like once they get there. This research looks at how outside financial pressure, hospital finances, and ESG decisions affect wait times, access to care, and fairness in treatment.
While volunteering, I saw that these decisions do not stay in offices or on spreadsheets. You see them in the hospital every day, and they can determine whether a patient spends an afternoon in a hallway waiting for a routine test, or whether a nurse working overtime has enough time to stop and talk.
This research is based on the experiences of patients receiving care. I saw how a simple top-down decision by hospital administration could affect every level of the organization until it reached the bedside. When hospital administration makes decisions to provide care in a way that is fair and socially responsible, rather than simply maximizing profits, the environment of the hospital changes: patients receive more dignified treatment, wait times are reduced, and employees experience less stress. Hospital policies are not just what is written in a handbook. Patients feel them the moment they enter the hospital.
References
Cooper, Z., Craig, S. V., Gaynor, M., & Van Reenen, J. (2019). The price ain’t right? Hospital prices and health spending on the privately insured. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134(1), 51–107.
Eccles, R. G., & Klimenko, S. (2019). The investor revolution. Harvard Business Review, 97(3), 106–116.
Health Care Cost Institute. (2024). Healthy Marketplace Index: Interactive hospital price transparency report. https://healthcostinstitute.org.
Reinhardt, U. E. (2019). The pricing of U.S. hospital services: Chaos behind a veil of secrecy. Health Affairs, 38(7), 1073–1081.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Gabrielle Gelber
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