Last year, Becker's reported on 19 hospitals that either closed or filed for bankruptcy as a result of financial challenges.
Since January, six hospitals have either closed or announced plans to close for a variety of reasons, including declining patient volumes, dwindling cash reserves, reimbursement or market challenges and spiraling labor costs:
1. Spring Valley, Ill.-based St. Margaret's Health will close June 16 after running out of resources to continue operations. In a May memo, St. Margaret's President and CEO Tim Muntz said the hospital "continues to be in severe financial distress" and requested emergency funding from the state of Illinois. A state budget recently passed without any assistance for the hospital after concerns that St. Margaret's Health would use state funding for payroll needs.
2. Lockport, N.Y.-based Eastern Niagara Hospital 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.
3. McLaren St. Luke's in Maumee, Ohio, closed May 8 and ceased all outpatient services. Cincinnati-based Mercy Health is acquiring the hospital campus — which includes 12 buildings — from Grand Blanc, Mich.-based McLaren Health Care. Mercy is working with WellCare Physicians Group practices through the transition to maintain the continuity of patient care. Changes will begin after Mercy officially takes over June 1.
4. San Antonio-based Texas Vista Medical Center, part of Dallas-based Steward Health Care, closed May 1. The 325-bed hospital provided healthcare to predominantly lower income residents in San Antonio and South Texas for almost 40 years and had been struggling financially. The closure resulted in 827 layoffs.
5. 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.
6. 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, Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare, a 15-hospital system, said it is in the process of acquiring "some" of St. Margaret's assets, including the hospital in Peru.