All but two nonprofit health systems in Southeastern Pennsylvania improved their financial results in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Despite the improvement, six of 11 systems tracked by The Inquirer still lost money and two — Jefferson Health and Temple University Health System — effectively broke even. The sector is trying to work though a surge in wages and other expenses that happened near the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital shuttered its inpatient behavioral health unit on Oct. 26. 'While there is a need for these services in our community, operational and financial challenges make it difficult for us to continue doing so,' Mercy Fitzgerald spokesperson Jason Griffith said. The cuts to those services at the 178-bed hospital in Darby is a devastating blow to health care in Delco and Southwest Philadelphia. Mercy Fitzgerald serves more than 186,000 patients each year.
Inside the more than 600 Roman Catholic hospitals across the country, not a single nun can be found occupying a chief executive suite. Nuns founded and led those hospitals in a mission to treat sick and poor people, but some were also shrewd business leaders. Sister Irene Kraus, a former chief executive of Daughters of Charity National Health System, was famous for coining the phrase "no margin, no mission." It means hospitals must succeed — generating enough revenue to exceed expenses — to fulfill their original mission. Over time, that focus on margins led the hospitals to transform into behemoths that operate for-profit subsidiaries and pay their executives millions.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has conditionally approved the affiliation of Rady Children's Hospital and Health Center, and its subsidiary, Rady Children's Hospital, with Children's HealthCare of California, and its subsidiaries, Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and CHOC at Mission. Rady, CHOC and CHOC at Mission will combine into a single healthcare delivery system and create a single parent entity called Rady Children's Health.
In this conversation, Matthew Hoag, director of integrated behavioral health at Denver Health, shares how the organization is innovating through integration to meet the behavioral health needs of its communities. One example is its state-of-the-art mobile opioid treatment unit.
Nicklaus Children's Hospital has opened a new surgical tower housing robotics, virtual reality and larger operating rooms to help staff perform complex pediatric surgeries and boost patient care.