CommonSpirit Health is leaning harder into ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) and outpatient expansion as it works to stabilize margins and reposition its portfolio beyond traditional hospital care.
This idea – leaning into outpatient – is one that CommonSpirit leaders have repeatedly spoken up about. That group includes President and CEO Wright Lassiter, who touched on the topic recently at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.
“We are looking very critically at if CommonSpirit is the best to serve every community we currently serve, and we are making some decisions to transition parts of our portfolio to other providers who can serve those communities better than we can,” Lassiter said at the health care conference. “We’ll also be looking very aggressively at how we augment our portfolio, particularly around ambulatory care.”
The Chicago-based nonprofit system reported an operating loss of $475 million for the six months ended Dec. 31, compared to a $196 million loss during the same period a year earlier.
After normalizing for California’s provider fee program, the operating loss improved to $164 million, reflecting volume gains and expense controls even as reimbursement pressures persist.
As CommonSpirit tries to narrow its losses, its ASC numbers continue to stand out.
The system now has 198 ambulatory joint ventures across dialysis, imaging, oncology and other services, including 75 ambulatory surgery centers that are either wholly owned or operated in partnership, according to its quarterly report.
“CommonSpirit’s goal is to seamlessly care for patients across all care settings, either at an individual care setting or by managing a patient’s journey across multiple settings,” the quarterly report stated.
It recently appointed a senior executive to oversee ASC strategy, growth and performance – a sign that outpatient surgery is moving higher on the system’s priority list.
In its quarterly report, CommonSpirit said it is “working to identify diversified revenue opportunities that expand CommonSpirit from a heavier weighting in acute care, to quickly scale critical ambulatory services.”
Additionally, CommonSpirit continues to “expand its ambulatory and virtual care points and enhance connections across the continuum of care,” the quarterly report explained.
From CommonSpirit’s quarterly report.
Volume trends support that shift. Adjusted admissions rose 4.9% for the six-month period, while outpatient visits increased 2.7%.
Across multiple regions, the system cited “higher outpatient and surgical volumes” as key drivers of revenue growth, alongside efforts to optimize perioperative capacity.
CommonSpirit reported $1 billion in capital expenditures during the six-month period.
“Such capital expenditures primarily relate to growth in ambulatory and inpatient services, equipment auditions and replacements, information technology projects, and various other capital improvements,” detailed the quarterly report.
*Editor’s note (Feb. 23, 2026): This article was corrected to properly site the table as coming from CommonSpirit’s quarterly report.
