Several healthcare organizations recently closed medical units or terminated services to shore up finances, focus on more in-demand services or prevent patient care lapses. Here are five that have announced or completed closures in the last month.
1. Dayton, Ohio-based Kettering Health Network permanently closed the operating rooms at Greene Memorial Hospital in Xenia, Ohio. Kettering said the hospital needed about $17 million in capital improvements over the next three years to maintain services, and a decline in revenue and patient volume due to the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the financial challenges.
2. St. Joseph's Hospital, a 295-bed hospital in Elmira, N.Y., closed its emergency department June 1. Arnot Health, which owns St. Joseph's Hospital, said shutting down the emergency department and consolidating services with Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira will result in about $1 million in savings for the system.
3. Holyoke (Mass.) Medical Center plans to close its 13-bed obstetrics unit and 10-bassinet infant nursery, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Spiros Hatiras, the medical center's president and CEO, said that the facility is losing about $3 million to $4 million annually from maternity services.
"Unfortunately it is a loss that is growing and that HMC cannot sustain any longer without risking the entire organization," Mr. Hatiras told the publication.
4. Citing a need to cut costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Massena (N.Y.) Memorial Hospital will close its obstetrics unit and will no longer offer after-hours surgery as of July 12, according to NNY360.com. Hospital officials said they targeted low-volume services to cut.
5. Guthrie Towanda (Pa.) Memorial Hospital will end surgical services and transfer them to Guthrie's Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pa., according to local news station WETM. The Towanda location will still have an ED, imaging services, lab services, outpatient rehabilitation and skilled nursing. About 50 employees from the operating room unit and medical-surgical unit will be affected by the transition.