From decreasing inpatient volumes to reimbursement challenges and rising demand for outpatient care, various factors lead hospitals to shut down or enter bankruptcy.
Here are six hospitals that closed or announced plans to close in the last three months:
Editor's Note: This webpage was updated March 21 and will continue to be updated.
1. Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport, N.Y., will close June 17 after years of financial turbulence. In November 2019, the hospital filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and signed a management agreement with Buffalo, N.Y.-based Catholic Health. The system has been planning to close Eastern Niagara Hospital once its replacement hospital opens. The closure will affect 337 employees, according to a WARN notice filed March 16.
2. McLaren St. Luke's in Maumee, Ohio, will close and cease all outpatient services by mid-May. Grand Blanc, Mich.-basedMcLaren Health Care and Cincinnati-based Mercy Health aim to finalize an asset purchase agreement in which Mercy will acquire McLaren St. Luke's facilities, land and physical assets.
3. San Antonio-based Texas Vista Medical Center, part of Dallas-based Steward Health Care, is set to close May 1, barring a takeover or significant relief package. Steward has asked San Antonio-based University Health System and Bexar County to take over the troubled hospital. Both entities have so far declined, but Jon Turton, the hospital's president, is still optimistic about a potential takeover to save Texas Vista Medical Center.
4. St. Margaret's Health-Peru (Ill.) closed Jan. 28 after the system's CEO and chair of the board detailed plans to temporarily shutter the hospital and reopen it once a rural emergency hospital designation is finalized. However, the hospital will need to reopen before it can qualify for the designation.
5. Havre de Grace, Md.-based Harford Memorial Hospital, part of the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health, announced plans to close in late 2023 or early 2024. The hospital closure is dependent on the opening of a new bed tower at the health system's Bel Air campus.
6. Madera (Calif.) Community Hospital closed at the beginning of the year after Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health's plan to buy the hospital fell through. However, the hospital's leadership is exploring multiple avenues to reopen the facility.