Becker's Hospital Review

15 CFO / FINANCE HealthPartners to close all retail pharmacies, lay off 300 employees By Alia Paavola H ealthPartners, a nonprofit healthcare provider and insurer in Bloomington, Minn., will close all its retail pharmacies and shut down its mail-order pharmacy opera- tions in 2020, according to the Pioneer Press. As a result, about 300 people will lose their jobs, including 100 pharmacists. The closure will include 30 retail pharmacies within HealthPartners and three of its medical clinics: Park Nicollet Clinic in Minneapolis, Cen- tral Minnesota Clinic in Minneapolis and Stillwa- ter (Minn.) Medical Group Clinic. The decision to close its retail pharmacies is a result of economic shifts that favor larger, chain pharmacies "able to support extended hours, drive-thru pickup and other conveniences that we're not able to offer," Scott Schnuckle, senior vice president for pharmacy business at Health- Partners, told the Pioneer Press. At the time of publication, the pharmacies inside the system's medical clinics were slated to close Jan. 20. Health Partners retail pharmacies are ex- pected to close April 1. HealthPartners will continue to operate its special- ty, infusion and in-house hospital pharmacies. n Arizona hospital closure will result in 655 layoffs By Ayla Ellison D allas-based Steward Health Care closed St. Luke's Medical Cen- ter in Phoenix on Nov. 24, resulting in 655 employees losing their jobs, according to the Phoenix Business Journal, which cit- ed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice. The hospital, which opened more than 100 years ago, closed due to dwindling patient volumes, St. Luke's Medical Center President James Flinn wrote in a letter to the local community last October. "On any given day, St. Luke's has 70 patients in the hospital out of a to- tal capacity of 219," Mr. Flinn wrote. "To put it another way, each night, two out of three hospital beds are empty at St. Luke's. Over the past two years, St. Luke's occupancy rate has remained below 40 percent, and emergency department visits have decreased by 16 percent." St. Luke's shut down its emergency room Nov. 23 and transferred re- maining patients to two other hospitals owned by Steward — Tempe (Ariz.) St. Luke's Hospital and Mountain Vista Medical Center in Mesa, Ariz. Some employees affected by the closure had the opportunity to be transferred as well. "We are looking for every opportunity to transfer St. Luke's employ- ees to equivalent positions at one of our sister facilities in the region — Tempe St. Luke's, Mountain Vista Medical Center, and the newly re- opened Florence Hospital," a spokesperson for Steward told Becker's Hospital Review Nov. 18. Brokers have been looking for new tenants to occupy the nine-sto- ry building that houses St. Luke's. Brokers told the Phoenix Business Journal that the facility could be renovated into apartments or senior living housing. n

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