Vincent Dunn was in the black, the IU Health hospital has generated far more profits in the last decade. Vincent Dunn even more challenging.Īscension said in its statement that it explored other options but concluded “other providers with a larger presence in the region are better positioned to efficiently serve the residents of Bedford and neighboring communities.” Tabor said Ascension’s statement also hinted that its cross-town rival, Indiana University Health Bedford, had captured a greater share of the market, making operations for St. “I am concerned that could lead to closures.” “Hospitals are definitely feeling some real financial headwinds,” Tabor said. He said that in a recent survey by the IHA, Indiana hospitals reported wage costs were rising up to 30%, and cash balances for many hospitals were declining, constraining their ability to obtain financing. Sharply rising staffing costs made those challenges even bigger. Running a hospital with around-the-clock emergency care in a small, rural community - much less two facilities - was challenging before the pandemic, Tabor said. Tabor said Indiana has 35 such facilities and it was “a bit of an accident of history” that two such hospitals serve Lawrence County. Federal rules limit such hospitals to 25 beds and require that the facilities be at least 35 miles from the nearest acute care hospital. 'An accident of history'īrian Tabor, president of the Indiana Hospital Association, said he was not surprised to hear about the hospital closing, in part because Bedford is one of a few communities - and perhaps the only one - in the country with two Critical Access hospitals, which serve as outposts of care in rural communities. Employees in the hospital and others working in nearby Ascension-affiliated offices said they could not talk because they had signed non-disclosure agreements and risked losing their severance pay. Leaders of the Bedford hospital were not in the facility on a recent afternoon and they did not respond to phone inquiries. Nelson did not respond to follow-up emails and phone messages. In response to inquiries from The Herald-Times, Lauren Nelson, Ascension Indiana’s senior director of marketing and communications, recently emailed a months-old statement that said the Catholic nonprofit made the decision to close the Bedford hospital after a “thorough assessment of the hospitals’ current operating environment and the healthcare landscape.” ![]() It closed a children’s cancer center in Detroit in October. It announced in June that it was closing 11 immediate care clinics in Indiana. It said this year that it was closing its children’s intensive care unit in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The chain has reacted by closing hospitals and clinics in Indiana and elsewhere. ![]() Put another way: Ascension in the last year lost more money on investments than on its health care operations. Last year, the investments generated a profit of nearly $6 billion. However, the health system also saw a roughly $7 billion swing in its non health care-related investments: Ascension lost about $1 billion on its investments this year. Ascension lost nearly $900 million from its health care operations, in part because wages and salaries rose by $1.2 billion from the prior year. The health system in September said it lost $1.8 billion for the year that ended June 30, compared to a profit of nearly $5.7 billion the prior year. Vincent Dunn Hospital, which formerly served as the county hospital and dates back to 1941. Louis, declined requests for interviews to discuss why it decided to close St. While a hospital industry spokesman said the Bedford hospital’s closure was prompted, at least in part, by a tight labor market, a health care industry critic and some community members laid at least part of the blame at Ascension’s feet, saying the Catholic nonprofit failed to make proper investments and cared more about money than mission.Īscension, based in St. ![]() Ascension Health announced it would close its Bedford hospital only days after posting a fiscal year, system-wide loss of $1.8 billion that came largely as a result of investment losses that exceeded $1 billion.
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