By Kennedy Rose – Editorial Intern,
Philadelphia Business Journal
Jul 2, 2019, 3:47pm EDT
Philadelphia
nurses and leaders criticized Hahnemann University Hospital owner American
Academic Health System for planning to shut down the Center City hospital.
AAHS
announced last week that Hahnemann would close,
resulting in the potential layoff of thousands of healthcare professionals and
a possible strain on area hospitals.
City
Councilmembers At-Large Helen Gym and Derek Green were in attendance, along
with local NAACP President Rodney Muhammad and nurses from hospitals
across the city.
“The
people right here? You guys are all heroes,” Gym said to the nurses and
employees of Hahnemann and other local hospitals. She then turned her attention
to AAHS President Joel Freedman. “But we have a villain living
in Rittenhouse Square right now that is ruthless and relentless about making
sure that this becomes his little real estate playground. And that is not gonna
happen.”
Several
speakers blasted Freedman, saying he was looking to pursue selling the
Hahnemann property, located in Center City. AAHS, under Freedman’s
leadership, bought Hahnemann
and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children for $170 million in 2018.
“We are a
community, not a real estate deal,” Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Sims said. Sims represents the
182nd Legislative District, which includes Philadelphia.
Freedman
was not in attendance at the press conference Tuesday. His representative
declined to comment.
“We
relentlessly pursued numerous strategic options to keep Hahnemann in operation,
and have been uncompromising in our commitment to our staff, patients and
community," Freedman said of
the closing last week. "We are saddened our efforts have not been
successful, and we are faced with the heartbreaking reality that Hahnemann
cannot continue to lose millions of dollars each month and remain in business.”
Hahnemann
had been hemorrhaging money, losing $3 million to $5 million every month,
according to Freedman. AAHS subsidiary Philadelphia Academic Health System,
which operates Hahnemann and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection on Monday. PAHS said it had no plans to close St.
Christopher’s.
Of interest,
the bankruptcy did not include the buildings in which Hahnemann and St.
Christopher's are located; those assets are owned by a separate subsidiary.
The
hospital announced last week that it planned to shut down the hospital on Sept.
6, but it was sent a cease and desist by
the state Department of Health. The letter sent to American Academic Health
System, Hahnemann’s parent company, said Hahnemann was planning to divert
trauma patients from its emergency room starting on July 1, yet the Department
of Health had not approved a plan for the closure. The closure “may cause
irreparable harm to the health and safety of patients,” without a plan approved
by the state, the letter said.
Members
of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, an
organization for local nurses and health professionals, called the closure a
“bona fide public health emergency” in a release, citing Philadelphia-area
hospitals’ higher-than-average emergency room wait time. Most of Philadelphia’s
largest hospitals have wait times longer than the Pennsylvania average of 26
minutes, and the national average of 25 minutes, according to data collected by ProPublica.
Hahnemann’s
average wait time for emergency room admission was more than double that of the
average wait time at hospitals in Pennsylvania and the United States, per
ProPublica.
Nurses
from hospitals around the city expressed their concerns about the closure,
saying that other hospitals will not be able to handle the volume of patients
that will be redirected from Hahnemann.
“They’re
building, but they’re not going to build fast enough to take on this brunt.
Multiple system traumas are going to come in left and right, and they’re not
going to be able to handle it,” said Uhura Russ, a nurse at St. Christopher’s.
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