UMass Memorial reported an $8 million operating surplus last year, the Telegram & Gazette reported last week, as opposed to this year's $14 million loss cited in the UMass Memorial press release. "We do so by consolidating services whenever possible and finding ways to work more efficiently and cost-effectively while maintaining the high level of quality care that our patients expect and deserve."Īccording to the press release, that is the reason behind the closure of not only the pediatric unit in Leominster, but also the cardiac rehabilitation unit at Leominster Hospital and the urgent care center at Burbank Hospital in Fitchburg.Ĭardiac rehabilitation services would be available at Clinton Hospital (now part of HealthAlliance), Whitney Field Physical Therapy Clinic in Leominster and Physical Therapy Plus at Orchard Hills Athletic Club in Lancaster.Īs for urgent care services, the hospital press release said those services are available at the CareWell Urgent Care Center on John Fitch Highway in Fitchburg, a couple of miles from Burbank Hospital.Īccording to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, other moves UMass Memorial has made to cut costs include closing 13 psychiatric beds at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester last year, and plans this year to end endoscopy services at Clinton Hospital and close Worcester's Plumley Village Health Center, which provides primary care services. "In order for our hospitals to survive in this increasingly challenging health care environment, we must respond to the demands of state policy makers and the public - do everything possible to improve quality and reduce our costs," the UMass press release stated. It stated that UMass Memorial hospitals "serve a significantly greater share of Medicaid and Medicare patients than other health care organizations in the region." It also cited cuts in Medicaid reimbursements and a "loss in volume" as the primary reasons for a $14 million loss between October and March, the first half of its fiscal year. The UMass press release did not address those assertions directly. Their mismanagement and lack of professional integrity has been used to engineer the closing of this service." "Now, because they never honored their commitment, they want to close this unit. "The hospital has never followed through on its commitment to work with our nurses to provide the training we requested to maintain this vital service," Love stated in the press release. The union and its members said the hospital has not followed through on an agreement reached four years ago to merge the pediatric and medical surgical units, and train the medical surgical nurses in pediatrics. However, the MNA press release stated that the closure of the pediatric unit has already happened, with patients sent to other facilities and hospital management "purposely driving down" patient numbers. The move still needs approval from the hospital's Board of Trustees and the state Department of Public Health, according to the MNA. The nurses' union claimed that the closure of the pediatric unit would "force families of ill children to travel from Northern Worcester County to Worcester (28 miles away) for care they used to receive close to home." A pediatric observation unit will be created as part of the emergency department at the Leominster campus of UMass Memorial Health Alliance Clinton Hospital to safely care for pediatric patients in the region 24 hours a day." In its own May 29 press release, UMass Memorial Health Care stated, "The inpatient pediatric service has been averaging a daily census of less than one patient in its 11-bed unit. "The closing of this unit would result in very sick children experiencing delayed access to acute care, in children being boarded in our emergency department, and in children being shipped to Worcester for care they could and should receive here in this community." "As a pediatric nurse who has cared for the children of this community for years, I am concerned about the impact this will have on our families, particularly the poorer members of our community who lack the resources and access to transportation to travel long distances for needed care," pediatric unit nurse Theresa Love stated in a May 29 press release from the Massachusetts Nurses Association. The union that represents nurses at UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital is objecting to plans to close the 12-bed pediatric unit at Leominster Hospital, a move hospital officials said is necessary because of low usage and decreased government reimbursements.
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