The health system is closing the emergency department as part of cutbacks aimed at shrinking a financial shortfall that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report.
Health system leaders said St. Joseph’s Hospital will continue to offer inpatient treatment for COVID-19 patients and services for those with mental health and chemical dependency issues, according to the report.
The changes come after St. Joseph’s ED was seeing an increase in the number of patients who were homeless and seeking shelter or had mental health and chemical dependency issues, leaders told the Star Tribune. The health system is addressing that population with new services, including leasing Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., to Ramsey County, Minn., for conversion to shelter housing.
Read the full Star Tribune article here.
More articles on patient flow:
Kaiser Permanente halts elective surgeries at some California hospitals
New York to order hospitals to boost bed capacity 25%
1 in 4 children visited an urgent care, retail clinic in 2019
