Becker's ASC Review

57 HEALTHCARE NEWS 5 hospitals have closed this year: Here's why By Alia Paavola W hether it is insurance limitations, dwindling patient volume or the COVID-19 pandemic, many fac- tors contribute to hospital closures. Since the beginning of the year, several hospitals have shut down. Here's a look at the hospitals that closed and why: 1. Cancer Treatment Centers of America closed its hospital in Tulsa, Okla. e hospital saw its last patient May 27. About 400 employees were affected by the closure. e hospital announced its intent to close in March and attributed the decision to insur- ance limitations and problems that restrict patient access to care in the Tulsa market. 2. Olympia Medical Center, a 204-bed hospital in Los Angeles, closed March 31. Al- though the facility closed under its previous owner, Irvine, Calif.-based Alecto Healthcare Services, the medical center is now owned by UCLA Health, which is preparing to renovate the facility and exploring services to offer at the site. An Alecto representative said at a virtual hearing in January that the hospital had not been busy and did not offer enough services to justify keeping it open. 3. Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Health closed its COVID-19 hospital March 5 and moved care offered there to four other hos- pitals in the area. e health system closed the 116-bed Green Valley campus aer the COVID-19 surge in the state waned. It was about a year aer it opened. 4. Jellico (Tenn.) Medical Center closed March 1, days aer the city council voted to send a contract termination notice to the hospital's operator, West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Rennova Health. City leaders said Rennova breached its contract by not operat- ing Jellico Medical Center as an acute care hospital. Rennova Health said the contract termination decision le the company with no option but to close the hospital. In May, the Jellico City Council approved plans for an Indiana healthcare system to take over operations of the closed hospital, which is in the process of reopening it. 5. Heights Hospital in Houston closed sud- denly and locked out staff in January over unpaid rent. Heights Hospital was once an acute care hospital but lately had only provided outpatient and specialty care. e facility filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection June 1. n Physician stabbed by patient sues Pennsylvania Hospital By Laura Dyrda A Pennsylvania Hospital physician who was stabbed multiple times by a patient in Febru- ary sued the hospital June 16, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The complaint alleges Philadelphia-based Pennsyl- vania Hospital and its health system, Penn Medicine, failed to take steps that would have prevented the attack and disregarded employee safety. On Feb. 23, the physician, who filed using a pseudonym, and a resident visited a psychiatric patient admitted to the hospital's neurology floor. The physician accused the patient of attacking her, punching her and stabbing her in the face, neck and arms with a table knife from the cafeteria and a pen. The lawsuit alleges 10 to 15 other employees wit- nessed the attack from a locked nurses station and did not alert hospital security. The physician eventually escaped and a nurse called 911, according to the lawsuit. The physician alleges she suffered physical trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the attack. She is seeking damages for negligence, civil assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. n Sentara, Cone Health nix merger By Alia Paavola N orfolk, Va.-based Sentara Healthcare and Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Health have abandoned plans to merge into an $11.5 billion system, the organizations said in a joint statement June 2. The health systems said they mutually agreed to end the plans. Leaders said they believe their respective organiza- tions will be better served by remaining independent. The two healthcare systems announced plans to combine last August. The deal would have formed an $11.5 billion system with 17 hospitals in Virginia and North Carolina. "Sentara Healthcare and Cone Health are high-performing, well-respected, community-focused organizations. Those similarities served as the basis for efforts toward an affiliation. I am confident that this mutual decision will not alter either organization's ongoing commitment to meet the needs of our respective communities," Howard Kern, president and CEO of Sentara, said in a prepared statement. "I have no doubt that Cone Health will remain a top-tier health system and will continue to pursue new and innovative ways to pro- vide value for North Carolinians for years to come." "We appreciate the efforts of Sentara to work with Cone Health to determine whether an affiliation of our two high- performing organizations is in the best interest of those we serve. Recently, in the final analysis, we mutually decided that we can best serve our communities by remaining indepen- dent organizations," Terry Akin, CEO of Cone Health, said in the news release. n

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