When Hospitals Move, Who Gets Left Behind?

MrChicagoRN, RN · May 12, 2015

Their press release reports that the State approved the new 144 facility, but they will still maintain a presence at their Belleville site.

That's a good thing for those unable to drive to O'Fallon.

DoGoodThenGo · May 13, 2015

Many hospitals of last resort/charity care facilities have been bleeding red ink for decades. Recent changes to federal and private insurance reimbursement rates (with more to come) are only exacerbating the problems. Yes, everyone wants a community hospital but the money to run them must come from somewhere.

As one repeats often when these sort of articles appear it is Saint Vincent's Hospital NYC all over again. Wealthy and or well insured patients avoid charity care/safety net hospitals in droves. That leaves these facilities largely dependent upon Medicare and Medicaid patients, neither program paid nearly 50% on the dollar and even that small number is dropping. Adding to this is the often large amounts of uncompensated care provided. This ranges from charity care patients to those who cannot or will not pay. What it all amounts to are places that just cannot dig themselves out of a hole.

Maybe a century ago when convents were full you could run a hospital staffed with mostly dedicated servants funded by bake sales, local school kids selling candy, parish fundraising drives and so forth, but those days are over. Nurses and other staff at charity hospitals want the same prevailing wages as elsewhere locally.

To attract better off patients and or those with good to excellent insurance hospitals increasingly realize they must step up their game. Such patients are demanding private rooms, modern up to date equipment and every other bell and whistle. ORs, Recovery, Critical Care, etc... all have changed over the last 50 or so years and often physical plants simply cannot be made to accommodate such changes easily if at all.

Some places choose to remain at their present location and simply build new. That works when you have patient population base that can make things work. Otherwise you are again digging a facility deeper into a fiscal hole.

If Saint Vincent's hadn't been so poorly managed and gotten their act together they may have survived by moving to another part of the West Side. As witnessed by the high prices those luxury condos being built on the former campus St V could have gotten a very good sum for that property.

Being as all this may hospitals and their real estate/development plans are making big news these days. Suffice to say St. Elizabeth's isn't the only one nor will it be the last.

Platinum Plan: NYC Hospitals’ Evolving Real Estate Portfolios | Commercial Observer

toomuchbaloney · May 14, 2015

Can't blame them.

The focus of the bulk of American health care is profit/$$/capitalism, they are just doing what makes financial sense.

idodialysis · May 14, 2015

Yes this is happening in Cleveland as well. The "not for profit" Cleveland Clinic Foundation is closing Lakewood Hospital and building a shiny new hospital a few miles away in the upscale suburb of Avon Lake. Sad for the staff and community alike.