Several healthcare organizations have closed medical departments or ended services at facilities to shore up finances, focus on more in-demand services or prevent patient care lapses.
Care Coordination
St. Charles Bend (Ore.) Hospital will operate only as an emergency facility through Aug. 4 because of delayed discharges and a shortage of long-term care in the region, local news station KTVZ reports.
Snow Shoe, Pa.-based Mountaintop Area Medical Center — which offers primary care, minor surgeries, lab services and more — will close Aug. 31.
Several hospitals and health systems in Florida and Louisiana are postponing elective surgeries amid an uptick in COVID-19 patient hospitalizations.
Tyler Memorial Hospital in Tunkhannock, Pa., will end acute inpatient care and surgical and emergency department services in October, according to the Rocket-Courier.
Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge, La., will temporarily halt scheduling any new elective inpatient surgeries because of an uptick in COVID-19 patients.
Amid the pandemic, births in the U.S. fell by 4 percent in 2020. Now, however, that trend is reversing as some hospitals experience baby booms.
A contract dispute between BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and Chattanooga, Tenn.-based CHI Memorial Health Care System could leave thousands of state residents without in-network coverage, according to a Chattanooga Times Free Press article on Yahoo's website.
AmeriHealth Caritas has 5 million Medicaid, Medicare and Children's Health Insurance Program members across 13 states and Washington, D.C., according to its website.
Health systems are eyeing home-based care as a priority trend in healthcare, said Daphne Bascom, MD, vice president of population health at Saint Luke's Health System in Kansas City, Mo.