Faced with a crisis that severely cripples many urban hospitals - too many beds and insufficient reimbursement rates -Temple University Health System executives have developed
a reorganization plan they hope will keep it from hemorrhaging.
Instead of closing facilities, cutting services and laying off hundreds of employees, the plan calls for an estimated $43 million investment over the next two years to
establish a community-based health system that reorganizes services based on the needs of the current demographics.
Although the hospital's patient population has plummeted in the last few years, its older patient base has increased. To better respond to the community's healthcare demands,
the plan's marketing strategies call for:
- building a new emergency room and acute care unit;
- working with several local community health and social service agencies to create community-based health and research facilities at Episcopal Hospital, one of the system's
anchor facilities; - expanding outpatient services to include a bilingual primary care practice and a combination crisis center and walk-in clinic; and
- investing $1.8 million for a maternal/child health services facility and consolidating OB-GYN services at two of its hospital facilities.
Temple anticipates that the reorganization will result in furlough or layoff of less than 100 of its nearly 10,000 health system employees over the next two years.
(Temple University, 215/204-8561)