Bucktail Medical Center executive on hospital closures, BMC future
SOUTH RENOVO, PA – Tim Reeves, CEO/Administrator at the Bucktail Medical Center in South Renovo, on Monday issued a cautionary article on the continued closure of hospitals across Pennsylvania and where Bucktail Medical Center stands now as Clinton County’s only acute care hospital.
The Reeves question-and-answer was written in the wake of recent word that UPMC, as of April 20, will no longer operate its Lock Haven facility as an acute care hospital, but will continue its emergency service department and some other services in Lock Haven.
The Reeves submission also addresses the future of the Bucktail Medical Center. His article as submitted:
Hospital Closures: Who’s Next?
Since 2005, there have been 186 rural hospital closures across the nation. Since 2010, 143 rural hospital closures, about 6.5 closures per year. Lock Haven Hospital’s announcement of its closure is the nineth in Pennsylvania since 2006; about one closure every 2 years. Three of these closures affect us directly: Philipsburg Hospital, Sunbury Hospital, and Lock Haven Hospital. With 19 hospital closures across the US, 2022 saw more hospital closures than any other year in history.
Like some other hospitals that have closed, Lock Haven will still provide emergency care services as an extension of Williamsport Hospital, however, there will be no acute care beds. Bucktail Medical Center (BMC) will have the only acute care beds – currently 16 – in Clinton County.
Why are there so many hospital closures?
Many experts believe there are three main reasons for rural hospital closures. First is location. Most hospitals that have closed in recent years have been rural hospitals, and more than 1 in 8 rural hospitals are at risk of closing today. The second major factor in rural hospital closures is unexpected expenses, like roof repairs or, as was the case with McNairy Regional Hospital in Tennessee, an unexpected plumbing problem caused that hospital’s closure. The third most common reason for rural hospital closure is that the hospital is the weakest performer, financially, in a health system.
Increased costs for staffing and supplies can have a substantial impact too, especially as insurers relentlessly decrease payments to hospitals while inflation results in significant cost increases. Many rural hospitals provide basic medical care and cannot benefit from providing more costly and lucrative services; we must subsist on small payments for basic services.
I believe, though, there is one other critical factor at play: Declining patient volumes. Declining patient volumes makes it nearly impossible for a small rural hospital to survive long term. In fact, decline in patient volumes was cited as a contributing factor in nearly every hospital closure in the past decade. Without patients, a hospital cannot cover its costs, much like a store without customers won’t stay open long.
Future plans for BMC
BMC has struggled financially for many years, and most of the past eight years has not been an exception, surviving a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and a national pandemic. Since successfully emerging from the bankruptcy and having weathered the pandemic, we have been hard at work envisioning what the medical center needs to achieve to serve the medical needs of the community for the next 20 years. The process to develop a plan for services has helped us understand a few key points.
First, we need to attract skilled staff to provide a wider range of services. We have already started by hiring physicians as direct employees of the medical center rather than through an agency, and by bringing the wage for every position competitive. With these changes, BMC has been successful in recruiting experienced staff rather than using agency staff.
Second, we need to define what services are crucial to providing quality patient care, and our work shows us that we need to concentrate on, in order, ambulance services, CT imaging, and restructuring how we provide long term care. We are working to provide ambulance service to whatever degree the community believes appropriate. We are exploring ways to get a mobile CT machine at the facility until we move forward with facility renovations, and we’ve also started necessary conversations with state officials to restructure how we deliver long term care.
Third, we need to grow. To serve you long term, we need to increase the services we provide, and we have recently finished a master plan, that I intend to share with the community soon, which does just that. The plan provides for additional laboratory and imaging diagnostics, outpatient nursing services, and increased clinic providers, in addition to campus renovations providing more space for lab and imaging, emergency room services, and outpatient nursing services.
Fourth, we need to do customer service better. When wages for all positions were increased in September, one requirement is that each of us we strive to be more professional and courteous. It is a fresh initiative to help us better serve you.
And fifth, we need to recognize our weaknesses and act to improve them. As an example, I know that recently, patients have been waiting a long time – sometimes as long as 5 days – to get results from an X-Ray. After unsuccessful attempts with the radiology company to improve the time for results, we have ended that relationship and entered into a new agreement with a different radiology provider with specific expectations for results.
Can BMC survive?
The short answer is, maybe. For the medical center to survive, for there to be a hospital in your community, for there be a hospital here when you need it most, one thing needs to change: Patient volumes need to increase. If we want the facility to be here, we need to use the services on a regular basis, and you need to help us understand how to improve. I’ve hinted at some changes, large and small, for the medical center, and I will share them with you as we move toward them. With your help and support, we can achieve these goals to better serve the community.
Pennsylvania doesn’t need another hospital to close, and western Clinton County needs the medical center to survive. So, my challenge to you is, grow with us. Help us grow into a facility that provides excellent medical care. A facility that meets the medical needs of Clinton County. A facility we will be proud to call our own.
