Page 9 - Healthcare News Sept.-Oct. 2020

Get the Quality Care You Deserve
Lathrop Home offers the very best Residential Care Services
in our field. We are committed to providing quality care for all residents, emphasizing the physical, social and emotional needs of those entrusted to our care. The Lathrop Home encourages each resident to reach their potential while recognizing their individuality.
u No application or admission fee
u 3 meals provided daily, along with snacks,
social activities and events
u Licensed residential care nurses on staff 24/7
u Housekeeping and laundry included
u Licensed and Regulated by MA Dept. of Public Health
Call Us Today to Schedule a Tour.
(413) 584-2865 | www.LathropHome.net | 215 South Street, Northampton MA
We’re proud to welcome
Dr. Emily West
Providing quality and compassionate care in Pediatric & General Dermatology
Springfield & Longmeadow
(413) 733-9600 | nedlc.com
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 WWW.HEALTHCARENEWS.COM 9
HCN TURNS 20
What’s Next for Hospitals
Beset by Wasteful Spending, American Healthcare Needs an Overhaul
By Spiros Hatiras
The year is 2020, in the midst of an un- precedented pandemic, and the subject is the U.S. healthcare system — more specifically, the average U.S. hospital. Is it alive and well, or is it ailing?
I will argue that all is not well with our health-
less hospital-centric models, the acute-care hos- pital remains solidly in the center of our deliv- ery system and, in my opinion, will continue to do so. Any notion of a more decentralized model with less emphasis on hospitals has been pushed many years into the future, in part as a result of
new appreciation for the need of readily avail- able inpatient hospital care, we have also not solved any of the problems that hospitals have been facing for many years. In fact, the pandem- ic laid bare one of the most fundamental prob- lems facing the industry, especially for smaller community hospitals. At the very onset of the pandemic, it was immediately clear that many hospitals, suffering from years of underfunding, faced immediate financial threat and would not be able to survive without a financial bailout, while private insurance companies reported record profits.
Why is this the case in a country where health- care demands the highest per-capita expendi- ture of all developed countries? According to a study published in January 2019 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the U.S. topped the ranking of healthcare spending among developed countries in 2016 at $9,982 per capita per year, a figure that is more than double the median of $4,033.
Please see Hospital, page 22
“I will argue that all is not well with our healthcare system, and that the average U.S. hospital is facing tremendous challenges now and for the foreseeable future.
the COVID-19 pandemic. De- spite the accel- erated growth of telemedicine during the pandemic, the need for hospi- tal bed capac- ity, specialized equipment, and personnel — including
care system, and that the average U.S. hospital is facing tremendous challenges now and for the foreseeable future.
It is important to establish that, while the healthcare-delivery model has been shifting to
the ability to ‘surge’ when needed — has all but ensured that the trend toward a smaller hospital footprint will slow down if not entirely reverse.
Shouldn’t that be good news for the future of hospitals? Well, not quite. While we may have a
2002785_NEDLC-EmilyWestPrintAd.indd 1
8/19/20 11:10 AM
4.5x5.8 HCN