Several hospitals are scaling back services for a variety of reasons, including financial challenges and staffing issues.
Below are 12 hospitals that are cutting services.
- Trinity Health of New England's hospital in Stafford, Conn., suspended inpatient and outpatient surgeries June 9 due to a staffing shortage. Johnson Memorial Hospital is now referring the majority of patients who need outpatient surgery to Trinity Health of New England's Johnson Surgery Center and patients who need inpatient surgery to other system-owned hospitals in the area.
- Tampa, Fla.-based Shriners Hospitals for Children is ending inpatient care at its campus in Springfield, Mass. The hospital gave the Massachusetts Department of Public Health a 120-day notice of the plan on March 31.
- Beverly (Mass.) Hospital announced in May that it is closing its freestanding birth center in September because of staffing shortages. The move comes after the hospital had to temporarily stop taking new birth center patients in March because of staffing problems. In June, the Massachusetts Nurses Association showed its opposition by filing a grievance over the plan, accusing the hospital of violating a contract by laying off the union midwives who work at the birth center.
- Pueblo, Colo.-based Parkview Health System will close its 25-bed inpatient adult psychiatric unit at Parkview Medical Center because of a decline in patients, The Pueblo Chieftain reported May 17.
- Minneapolis-based Allina Health combined Regina Medical Center in Hastings, Minn., and United Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., under one license and closed its freestanding eye institute in Minneapolis. The system also scaled back services at Cambridge (Minn.) Medical Center.
- Commonwealth Health will end emergency services at its emergency room in Tunkhannock, Pa., in July. The ER is part of the health system's Regional Hospital of Scranton, Pa.
- Boston-based Tufts Children's Hospital is closing its pediatric inpatient units in July to convert its 41 pediatric inpatient beds to adult ICU and medical/surgical beds. Tufts will refer children to Boston Children's Hospital for care. Nearly 100 nurses will be affected by the closure of the pediatric beds. All of the nurses have either found a new position within the Tufts Medicine system or at Boston Children's Hospital or are taking early retirement, a Tufts Medical Center spokesperson told Becker's Hospital Review in May.
- St. Mary's Health System will close its maternity and women's health service line at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine, in July.
- Citing staff shortages and financial woes, Kootenai Health in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, is scaling back some behavioral health services. The health system is closing its inpatient addiction recovery program and outpatient psychiatry practice. The outpatient practice is slated to close by July 1.
- MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, Mass., is planning to close outpatient oncology services later this year. In April, the hospital eliminated live interpretation services and laid off an undisclosed number of employees.
- McLaren St. Luke's Hospital in Maumee, Ohio, is ending labor and delivery services. The hospital will end labor and delivery services between Aug. 31 and Sept. 30.
- New Orleans-based Ochsner Health will close its labor and delivery department at Ochsner Medical Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss. The decision was prompted by the low number of births in the area and the departure of an obstetrician, according to the Sun Herald.