End of the line for MCP Hospital

By: Michael Potter 12/23/2003
The Review

Tenet Healthcare Corporation announced last week that it intends to close MCP Hospital, which has been plagued by severely heightened financial losses and a bitter labor dispute with nurses, effective March 31, 2004.
The extinction of MCP will leave the Roxborough-Manayunk-East Falls area with Roxborough Memorial Hospital, which is also owned by Tenet, and Chestnut Hill Hospital as the only local medical facilities. The decision also means that the practice of transporting trauma patients to outlying hospitals for treatment, necessitated since MCP shuttered its trauma center at the start of the nurses' strike on Nov. 11, will now become a permanent condition.

MCP Hospital will stop admitting new patients and will close its emergency room after February 29, said Tenet.

The announcement came only hours before nurses voted to approve a new contract agreement with the hospital, ending the heated 38-day impasse. Nurses were to return to the job this week, but now face the proposition of losing their jobs in less than three month's time.

According to a Tenet spokesperson, approximately 800 jobs will be lost with the closure of MCP. The hospital eliminated 165 jobs and drastically cut the hours of 35 other employees on Dec. 11 in a move the hospital said was made necessary by a low patient census resulting from the lengthy strike.

In a statement released by Tenet, Philip S. Schaengold, Vice President of Operations for Tenet Pennsylvania, termed the shutdown "a very difficult decision."

"Unfortunately, a tough payor market, the medical malpractice insurance crisis, state budget constraints, as well as other factors, lead us to this action," he said.

Tenet indicated that the hospital, the second largest in the company's Philadelphia-area holdings, had suffered massive and accelerating financial losses over the past year, growing to more than $5 million per month.

"Losses of this magnitude simply cannot be sustained," said Schaengold.

Fourth District City Councilman Michael Nutter, who served as chairman of Tenet's local board of advisors, was reportedly livid about the decision. Nutter gave an impassioned speech during City Council's final session of the year last Thursday, leading Council to approve the use of public hearings in order to investigate the closing.

The loss of MCP is expected to produce a significant increase in emergency room visits and patient admittance at the two remaining area hospitals. The permanent loss of the hospital's trauma center, something that neither Roxborough Memorial nor Chestnut Hill Hospitals are equipped with, is a considerable blow to the area. Volumes are also likely to increase at Temple University Hospital and Einstein Medical Center - which will now become the nearest locations offering trauma facilities.

Jack Donnelly, CEO of Roxborough Memorial Hospital, said that his staff has already been dealing with an increased patient load since MCP decreased their admission levels at the start of the strike. MCP physicians have routinely had 15-20 additional patients at Roxborough Memorial since that time, according to Donnelly, and he says he expects that volume to increase further in the aftermath of the MCP shutdown and for patient visits to rise in both the ER and outpatient services.

Donnelly, however, sees no problems in accommodating the extra patients.

"We do have the space to expand," he said. "We can expand up to 40 beds and handle it quite easily."

Some physicians will be moving their practices from MCP to Roxborough Memorial to help with the transition, said Donnelly, and the hospital will look to push up the target dates on the planned additions of several residency programs.

Roxborough Memorial will also be adding staff, replacing a portion of the local medical jobs that will evaporate along with MCP.

MCP Hospital has been a fixture in the East Falls community since 1850. Founded as the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, the hospital has become one of the leading medical facilities in Philadelphia. Under Tenet, the hospital has been outfitted with advanced medical technology such as the Da Vinci robotic surgery unit. The facility specializes in cardiac care and surgery, and also has strong programs in neurology, behavioral health and emergency medicine.

The loss of MCP leaves Tenet with five area hospitals: Roxborough Memorial, Graduate Hospital, Warminster Hospital, Hahnemann Hospital, and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. Tenet announced in November that it had sold Elkins Park Hospital to Albert Einstein Healthcare Network. Gross proceeds from the sale were estimated at $14.5 million.

Tenet Healthcare Corporations financial filings with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission for the third quarter of 2003 indicate that the company finalized the sale of six hospitals in October and expected to close on the sale of five more by the end of the calendar year.

The filings also showed that Tenet, which owns and operates over 100 hospitals nationwide, reported a $519 million comprehensive loss through the first nine months of 2003.