Hospitals Seek Return of Non-COVID Patients as Vaccination Rollout Continues
/As Connecticut’s vaccine roll-out continues, restrictions on public gatherings are to be reduced later this month, and optimism that we may have turned the corner, on the COVID-19 pandemic grows, Connecticut hospitals appear to be taking the opportunity to remind residents that a full range of medical services are available at their facilities.
It seems they’re reminding the public not to avoid preventative care, and they’re looking for business.
A full-page Hartford Healthcare advertisement this past weekend was headlined “What care have you been putting off?” It urged residents to “schedule important screenings and checkups now,” citing eight categories of care (from Breast Health to Orthopedics, Colonoscopy to Weight Loss), as well as noting that emergency departments are “open & safe,” urging people not to “let fear keep you from getting lifesaving care.”
Trinity Health’s Saint Francis Hospital, in their own full-page ad, pointed out “We are Safe. We are Open. We are Fast.” The ad, devoted to highlighting the hospital’s emergency department, emphasized that they “strictly adhere to CDC guidelines” while noting the high grades their ER has received in recent years.
Hospitals rapid and sustained mobilization to respond to COVID-19, described as heroic amidst the formidable personal and professional challenges and sacrifices, resulted in countless lives being saved, yet the circumstances also caused ramifications beyond immediate healthcare needs.
The financial hit taken by hospitals since last March continues to receive attention and remains a cause for concern. Last fall, the Yale Daily News reported that officials at Yale New Haven Hospital described the situation as a “perfect financial storm” as costs increased due to COVID while income from non-COVID medical care dropped precipitously.
“Our financial status [before the coronavirus] was actually very stable and on track from a budgetary standpoint,” Keith Churchwell, the newly appointed president of Yale New Haven Hospital, told the Yale Daily News in October. “Then the pandemic comes, and it’s a perfect financial storm.” Some of the hospital’s main costs included new technological and electronic requirements that were necessary for managing the patient influx. The hospital doubled their intensive care unit capacity, for example, which meant an increased demand for respirators and video conferencing facilities for both doctors and patients to communicate with family members. This put the hospital in a deficit of “hundreds of millions of dollars,” the publication reported.
Over in New Jersey, the dramatic drop-off was evident in a recently published analysis that covered most of last year. Hospital utilization data through Sept. 30, 2020, revealed a 27 percent decline in emergency department visits, a 20 percent decline in outpatient volume and a 9.7 percent decline in inpatient admissions compared with year-to-date third quarter 2019, according to the analysis from the Center for Health Analytics, Research and Transformation (CHART) at the New Jersey Hospital Association. That continued a trend seen in New Jersey and other states including Connecticut, beginning in March 2020, of people avoiding hospital-based care as COVID cases accelerated. Similar trends were reported in Connecticut during the past year.
The decline in patient volume in the Garden State came at the same time that hospitals’ expenses are increasing due to the demands for staffing, personal protective equipment, pharmaceuticals, physical plant changes, technology and other supplies to safely care for both COVID and non-COVID patients, according to the report.
In New Jersey, among hospitals overall, expenses increased 10% over the first nine months of 2020, while overall revenue fell 2.6% during the same time frame compared with 2019. In the early months of the pandemic, Connecticut hospital officials also projected considerable fiscal impact, even with financial assistance from federal initiatives.
Comprehensive up-to-date data for both Connecticut and New Jersey was not available, but published reports indicated that a spike in COVID cases early this year, weeks after the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, once again increased public reluctance to go ahead with some long-delayed medical procedures or treatments. Hospital officials have expressed concern, throughout the pandemic, that people should not delay hospital care for acute conditions, and stressed the safety protocols in place at their facilities. Some recent data is available.
The latest tracking data by the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management indicates that the percentage of hospital beds occupied in Connecticut, by county, ranges from 79% in Fairfield County and 78% in Middlesex County, to 56% in Litchfield County and 54% in Windham County. Data is for the week ending February 25, utilizing data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The ongoing reluctance to seek hospitalization for medical issues is likely due to continuing public concerns about COVID transmission. Data from the State Department of Public Health, for the two weeks ending February 27, continue to show the vast majority of Connecticut towns and cities in the red category in the number of COVID-19 cases, even as the overall number of cases in Connecticut recedes. Only 18 of Connecticut’s 169 towns had fewer than five cases per 100,000 population. Well over 100 communities had 15 cases or more. The data does not include nursing homes, assisted living or correctional facilities.
Data compiled by the Connecticut Department of Public Health earlier in February, through mid-month, indicated that adult in-patient occupancy at UConn Health’s John Dempsey Hospital was 54%, Bristol Hospital was 59%, and Windham Hospital was 47%.
Concerns about the financial health of hospitals go beyond patient care, CT Mirror reported last May. “The health systems are a main driver of the economy, and in Connecticut, the state’s hospital association puts their total economic impact – including jobs, health care spending and capital improvements – at $28.9 billion. Hospitals are some of the largest employers in their communities and spend hundreds of millions on buildings and equipment.”
Statewide, about 29 percent of hospitals lost money in 2019, before the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, while 71 percent were profitable, according to the Office of Health Strategy’s 2019 Annual Report on the Financial Status of Connecticut’s Short Term Acute Care Hospitals, which was released last fall. A report on 2020 hospital fiscal data is not expected until this fall.
