The chief of Hospital Sisters Health System, which shuttered two Wisconsin hospitals on March 22, has opened up about the "difficult and heartbreaking" decision.
In a recent interview with the Catholic Health Association of the United States, HSHS President and CEO Damond Boatwright explained the hospitals' struggles and the eventual choice to end operations.
"Our situation in Western Wisconsin is a wake-up call about the crisis rural providers are facing in general and in particular what has been a reoccurring issue in Catholic health care, because historically we serve rural areas," Mr. Boatwright said.
In Wisconsin's Chippewa Valley region — home to HSHS' Chippewa Falls-based St. Joseph's Hospital and Eau Claire-based Sacred Heart Hospital, until recently — four different hospitals were vying for a dwindling patient population, according to Mr. Boatwright. For 115 years, Springfield, Ill.-based HSHS was the only one in the market, but over the past 25 years, there's been a surge in competition.
Though Mr. Boatwright did not directly name the competitors, Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic Health System and AdventHealth Durand (Wis.) operate hospitals in the market. Mayo Clinic Health System, based in Rochester, Minn., also runs a clinic offering specialty services in Chippewa Falls.
"We know how to compete," Mr. Boatwright said. "But there's a point where you're competing with 'enough resources' in an area versus a surplus of resources in an area."
He also noted that the region's Medicaid and Medicare patients were not evenly dispersed across the four hospitals. Sixty percent ended up at HSHS facilities, which contributed to their financial challenges.
The hospitals attempted to stay afloat with various measures: service mix changes, labor force rightsizing, and the implementation of their own insurance company (which ultimately failed because people wanted choice, per Mr. Boatwright). HSHS sought a partner to take over operations, but the one it identified eventually came to the same conclusion that there was no way to weather the market dynamic in Western Wisconsin.
The closure announcements affected the community similarly to the five stages of grief, Mr. Boatwright said. People were in denial and grew angry, and companies with financial interests in the hospitals attempted to negotiate a different outcome. But eventually, the community was able to process the decision and begin moving forward.
"I think that this truly is a wake-up call for many people about the rural health care network, that they really are in trouble and that there needs to be regulatory intervention in some cases, there needs to be financial support almost in every case and there needs to be more sympathy as well as empathy for the struggles that are impacting Catholic rural health care providers in particular," Mr. Boatwright said. "And let's not wait until you hear that they are closing to say we need to respond now and find a way to help these hospitals stay open."
Read the full Q&A here.