As hospital finances continue to weather the storm of increased labor and operating expenses, some have begun to take a hard look at services they can no longer afford to offer.
Several hospitals and health systems have cut services to stay afloat during economic uncertainty, notes Becker’s.
St. Mark’s Medical Center in La Grange, Texas, is cutting nearly half its staff and various services due to financial struggles. The services cut include inpatient and surgical services, post-acute skilled rehab care, its orthopedic clinic, speech therapy and ambulatory care.
Sunnyside, Wash.-based Astria Health no longer offers certain cardiology services, including invasive and interventional cardiology, due to staffing issues and rising labor costs.
The void these closures have created could be filled by ASCs. Because orthopedics is a booming specialty for surgery centers, the blow from the closure of St. Mark’s Medical Center orthopedic clinic could be softened if those procedures were shifted to a nearby surgery center. As for Astria Health’s diminishing cardiology services, several industry leaders have pointed to cardiology as an upcoming specialty in the ASC space.
However, surgery centers that take on this case volume should examine how it could affect the center as a whole. Read more.
