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Hospitals
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nual economic impact of some $4.2 billion.
When the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, he expects Baystate to have lost about $160 million in revenues due to volume losses, but the system was able to secure about $75 million in federal relief and another $23 million in state aid.
“The rest of that will likely be covered by reserves,” he added, noting that Baystate is fortunate to have both reserve funds and a broad service model.
“The smaller hospitals that have cash-flow problems got hit very hard because they didn’t have much in the way of reserves, but the other group is bigger hospitals that are highly specialized, like Mass General, where their revenues really depend on that elective surgi-
“We are seeing people with chronic illness who have waited too long to seek medical attention and are sick.”
cal volume. Hospitals that are jacks of all trades and have good size, like Baystate, were hit less hard. Not to say it was pleasant what we’ve been through.”
Calling a $160 million revenue loss a ‘less hard’ hit may speak in some ways to the financial clout of the healthcare industry as a whole; it’s certainly one of the Common- wealth’s key economic drivers. And as patient volume continues to ramp back up, hospitals will be on safer ground when it comes to budgeting.
“At Baystate Medical Center, we’re at 80% to 90% capacity, so I would say people are mostly back.” Keroack said, noting that, while patients are returning gradually
for routine care and procedures, current volume is still affected by social-distancing and sanitization measures that have slowed the pace of treatment. “In the commu- nity hospitals, they’re a bit further
behind — more like 60% of former volume.
“In the long run, the question is, will volumes be permanently de- pressed?” he went on. “We’ve tried to convince people you really don’t want to put off stuff you know is worthwhile — you don’t want to ignore symptoms that might be serious. We have seen a number of people lately whose illness is much more serious than it would have been in pre-COVID days.”
Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s Emergency Department has seen a 100% increase from its COVID
lows, during the height of the pandemic locally, when it was handling 35 to 45 patients per day. Now, ED providers are seeing 70 to 80 patients per day, which is still about 20% below the organization’s typical ED volume.
“We are seeing people with chronic illness who have waited too long to seek medical attention and are sick,” Emergency Depart- ment Nurse Director Sara McKeown said. “We have also seen an uptick in people seeking mental health- care; patients presenting with substance-use issues and trauma are
also increasing.”
Patient volume is bouncing back
at Holyoke Medical Center and its community-based practices, but ED visits still lag, Hatiras said. “Anec- dotally, we’ve heard of people put- ting off heart conditions and other things, and that can lead to bad outcomes. People shouldn’t stay home with serious conditions.”
That said, “I don’t blame the gov- ernment for being overly cautious with closing down elective surger- ies,” he added, noting that the elimination of many procedures over the past two months was,