The failed acquisition by a Texas-based health care services company of five Connecticut hospitals last year hinted at shifts in patient care that are still playing themselves out. The hard math of health care says that one facility”™s cutback could be another”™s unwanted gain.
Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. announced in December it had pulled out of a proposed deal to purchase five Connecticut hospitals: Waterbury Hospital, St. Mary”™s Hospital in Waterbury, Bristol Hospital, Rockville General Hospital and Manchester Memorial Hospital.
Waterbury Hospital, the largest of the hospitals involved and closest in proximity to Fairfield County, announced in January that to stay financially afloat, it had eliminated 80 full-time positions and nonpatient-care initiatives, closed several blood-drawing stations and had reduced hours of operation for other services.
Residents of northwestern New Haven County and southern Litchfield County who may have previously sought care at or utilized programs once offered at Waterbury Hospital may have to now look elsewhere, and that could mean Fairfield County.
Six of the state”™s 30 hospitals are in Fairfield County. The three closest in proximity to the geographic area of patients normally utilizing the Waterbury hospitals would be Danbury Hospital, St. Vincent”™s Medical Center in Bridgeport and Bridgeport Hospital, which has the only trauma center in Fairfield County.
Vin Petrini, senior vice president of Yale-New Haven Hospital, whose affiliates include 383-bed Bridgeport Hospital and 206-bed Greenwich Hospital, said that both Fairfield County hospitals have experienced a skyrocketing patient count in the last several years.
“Bridgeport has seen more patients than it ever has before,” Petrini said. “They are seeing an increase in volume at the same time the state is proposing draconian cuts to Medicaid reimbursements.”
April 8 marked Healthcare Day at the Capitol in Hartford, where hospital officials from across Connecticut gathered to lobby against Gov. Dannel Malloy”™s proposed budget cuts for 2015-16. Petrini said on average state hospitals lose 42 cents per dollar on each Medicaid patient treated; he said that number will rise to more than 50 cents per patient should the budget pass.
One-third of Bridgeport Hospital”™s patients use Medicaid. This could mean a $60-$70 million loss for hospitals across the state, Petrini said.
For Waterbury Hospital, more losses could mean further staff or budget cuts to programs and other medical services, which in turn, could mean more patients looking to Fairfield County. The state”™s largest hospital, Yale-New Haven Hospital, which holds 1,541 beds, could also see an uptick in patients.
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