To handle a burgeoning healthcare crisis in the state, an executive at Worcester, Mass.-based UMass Memorial Medical Center is calling for a $44 million yearly investment, The Telegram & Gazette reported June 19.
Among the hospital's top challenges are placing patients in limited post-acute facilities, staffing at those places and low reimbursements to cover operating costs. Vice President and Associate Chief Nursing Officer Kimberly Barry, RN, who is asking for the investment, pointed to other challenges in mental health care and treating patients without insurance.
Ms. Barry's $44 million yearly estimate stems from the nearly 1,200 patients reportedly stuck in a hospital each day because of a shortage of post-acute space. That figure comes from the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association. For each patient that does get transferred to post-acute care, the facilities lose an average of $100 per day due to low insurance reimbursements, Ms. Barry said, which fail to cover their costs and further feed the shortage..
"The reality is patients are not moving out of acute-care hospitals," Ms. Barry said in the report. "They’re backed up in emergency departments. It’s a quality-of-care issue, and patients are not cared for in the places where they need to be."