Becker's Hospital Review

24 POPULATION HEALTH 24 CEO / STRATEGY 20 top critical access hospitals By Ayla Ellison T he Chartis Center for Rural Health released its annual list of the top 20 critical access hospitals in the U.S. April 29. e 2020 list was determined by results of the Hospital Strength Index and its eight pillars of performance: in- patient market share, outpatient market share, quality, outcomes, patient perspective, cost, charge and finan- cial efficiency. e 20 hospitals were selected from the Chartis Center for Rural Health's list of 100 top critical access hospitals, which was released earlier this year. Here are the top 20 critical access hospitals, listed by state: Colorado Rio Grande Hospital (Del Norte) Kansas Clay County Medical Center (Clay Center) Gove County Medical Center (Quinter) Kingman Community Hospital Osborne County Memorial Hospital Sabetha Community Hospital Minnesota Mayo Clinic Health System-St. James Nebraska Brodstone Memorial Hospital (Superior) Howard County Medical Center (St. Paul) New Mexico Miners' Colfax Medical Center (Raton) North Carolina Transylvania Regional Hospital (Brevard) North Dakota CHI St. Alexius Health Carrington Jamestown Regional Medical Center Sanford Mayville Medical Center Oregon Wallowa Memorial Hospital (Enterprise) South Dakota Avera Hand County Memorial Hospital (Miller) Wisconsin Mayo Clinic Health System-Red Cedar (Menomonie) edaCare Medical Center-Waupaca Upland Hills Health (Dodgeville) Westfields Hospital and Clinic (New Richmond) n UMass Memorial CEO commits to no layoffs, furloughs despite financial hit By Alia Paavola E ric Dickson, president and CEO of Worcester, Mass.-based UMass Memorial Health Care, committed to no layoffs or fur- loughs despite financial losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Worcester Business Journal. "While this decision to retain our caregivers did increase pressure on our financial health, we as a senior leadership team — with the endorse- ment of our board of trustees — felt that was the right thing to do," Mr. Dickson wrote in a staff memo obtained by the Business Journal. In the first six months of fiscal year 2020, UMass Memorial saw a loss of $28 million, and Mr. Dickson anticipates the second half of the year will bring an even bigger loss due to the lack of elective proce- dures in April and May, according to MassLive. While the health system has received some federal financial aid, it did not receive enough to cover the losses incurred as a result of the pan- demic. However, Mr. Dickson said that moves made to sell its pharma- cy business last summer helped the system have extra cash on hand. n Colorado hospital CEO: 'I think we made people afraid to come back' By Kelly Gooch A s hospitals try to rebound from the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans need to be reminded that these facilities are still safe places to get healthcare when they need it, a Colorado hospital executive told KMGH-TV. Maureen Tarrant serves as CEO of Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center and Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, both in Denver. Like other U.S. hospitals, Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center pre- pared for a surge of COVID-19 patients. But Ms. Tarrant told KMGH her hospital was "never overwhelmed with COVID patients," and it did not see the surge of patients that hospitals in more dense areas of the country did. However, there was another effect. "I think we had an unintended consequence: I think we made people afraid to come back to the hospital," she said. The hospital saw revenue drop due to decreased emergency depart- ment patient volume, said Ms. Tarrant. She told KMGH she is worried there will be "collateral damage" from COVID-19 and that healthcare workers could be negatively affected financially from people avoid- ing care for other medical problems such as strokes, heart disease, cancer and asthma. Ms. Tarrant is not alone. Out of similar concerns, hospitals in Cali- fornia and Washington state have launched campaigns to en- courage people not to delay healthcare when they need it during the pandemic. n

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