Several hospitals are scaling back services for a variety of reasons, including financial challenges and staffing issues.
Below are 13 hospitals that are cutting services.
- 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.
- 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.
- Marietta, Ga.-based Wellstar Health System closed the emergency department and ended inpatient care at Atlanta Medical Center South on May 6. The hospital will be converted into an outpatient site, providing primary and rehabilitative care. Inpatient services will be consolidated to Atlanta Medical Center's main campus, Wellstar said.
- 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.
- South Lincoln Medical Center in Kemmerer, Wyo., stopped providing labor and delivery services June 1, and the critical access hospital's operating room is no longer open around the clock for emergency surgeries. Hospital leaders said the facility is scaling back services because it has been unable to recruit the number of surgical nurses needed to maintain a full surgical team all the time.
- 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.
- 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.
- Audrain Community Hospital in Mexico, Mo., and the Callaway Community Hospital in Fulton, Mo., suspended all services March 25 to restructure operations and haven't reopened. The hospitals furloughed 175 employees in April.
- Memorial Hospital of Carbon County in Rawlins, Wyo., is ending labor and delivery services June 15 amid staffing shortages. The hospital is spending $100,000 a week on travel nurses after losing five nurses in the labor and delivery department. Eliminating labor and delivery services will help the hospital alleviate financial pressure, a spokesperson told Wyoming Public Radio.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.