St. Louis-based Ascension on Sept. 16 released consolidated statistical data alongside its fiscal 2026 financial results, comparing the twelve months ended June 30, 2026, with the same period a year earlier.
The 91-hospital system closed fiscal 2026 with 79,626 fewer discharges, 14,502 fewer full-time employees and 1,755 fewer beds than it had a year earlier. It also closed the year with net income of $1.5 billion, up from $918 million.
That combination isn’t a coincidence. Ascension recently divested several hospitals in Illinois, Michigan and Alabama, among other markets, and completed its acquisition of ambulatory surgery operator Amsurg, trading off a chunk of its footprint for a system that — on a same-facility basis — grew revenue 9.8% and pushed core operations into the black.
Eight things to know:
1. The declines below reflect a smaller system, not falling demand. Every volume metric in Ascension’s statistical report fell year over year, in some cases sharply. But these are as-recorded, systemwide totals, not adjusted for the hospitals Ascension sold or transferred during the period. As Becker’s previously reported, Ascension’s own same-facility figures for FY26 tell a different story: equivalent discharges rose 1.3% and net patient service revenue grew 10.5% at facilities the system owned throughout both years. The gap between these two pictures traces to Ascension’s recent hospital divestitures.
2. Total discharges fell 14.1%, with acute care making up most of the base. Ascension recorded 485,327 discharges in fiscal 2026, down from 564,953 a year earlier. Acute care accounted for 449,049 of those discharges in FY26, a 12.9% decline from 515,592 in FY25.
3. Post-acute service lines shrank about twice as fast as acute care. Combined discharges across psychiatric care, rehabilitation, skilled nursing and residential living, long-term acute care, and other long-term sub-acute care fell 26.5%, to 36,278 from 49,361. Patient days across those same categories dropped 28.3%, to 1.3 million from 1.8 million, compared with a 14.1% decline in acute care patient days.
4. Newborn volumes slipped in the mid-single digits. Ascension recorded 58,368 newborn births in fiscal 2026, down 6.8% from 62,632. Newborn patient days fell 10.3%, to 92,101 from 102,679.
5. Outpatient surgery bucked the broader decline. Outpatient surgical visits rose 20.5%, to 407,885 from 338,618, even as nearly every other volume metric fell. Inpatient surgical visits dropped 11.3%, to 114,168 from 128,697. The divergence lines up with Ascension’s stated strategy of shifting procedures to outpatient settings and its June 2026 acquisition of Amsurg, which expanded its ASC footprint to more than 312.
6. Emergency room and overall outpatient visits fell in line with the smaller facility count. ER visits dropped 13.3%, to 2,154,796 from 2,484,054. Total outpatient visits, which include surgical and ER visits, fell 10%, to about 19 million from about 21.1 million.
7. Workforce and bed capacity contracted alongside the divested facilities. Full-time equivalent employees fell 13.6%, to 92,207 from 106,709. Total available beds dropped 10%, to 15,874 from 17,629, and available beds excluding bassinets fell a similar 10.2%, to 14,975 from 16,683.
8. Average length of stay improved, but occupancy did not. Dividing total patient days by total discharges shows average length of stay fell to about 7.1 days in FY26 from about 7.6 days in FY25, a 6.8% improvement that matches the systemwide figure Ascension cited in its FY26 results. But occupancy — measured as patient days against available bed capacity — dropped to roughly 59% from about 66%, suggesting the hospitals Ascension retained are running leaner even as they treat patients more efficiently. That combination, a smaller but more efficient system, underpinned the $1.5 billion net income and $371 million operating improvement Ascension reported for the year.
