Stack, Taylor Appalled by Cuts Northeastern Hospital

PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 23, 2009 — State Sen. Mike Stack and state Rep. John Taylor today were appalled by Temple University Health System’s decision to close Northeastern Hospital in Port Richmond.

TUHS today announced that Northeastern Hospital will only provide emergency room services 12 hours a day and outpatient care, and would close all inpatient care.

“This will devastate the community, all because Temple University Health System has chosen to put profits before people,” said Stack (D-Philadelphia). “In light of all the bad economic news nationally and locally, the news that TUHS is basically abandoning our community is another blow to the city’s morale.”

“It’s an outrage,” said Taylor (R-Philadelphia). “Northeastern Hospital is a lifeline for residents in the river wards, so how can you limit hours for unexpected emergency care? While the full impact of this news isn’t clear, it will surely hurt this community. Sen. Stack and I support our constituents and their demand to keep Northeastern a fully functioning hospital with core services.”

Temple University Health System has received more than $388 million in supplemental medical assistance payments — $27 million for Northeastern Hospital alone — in addition to Medical Assistance payments due to the high MA caseload it serves. Temple is also a major health care employer in the city with 7,500 employees — over 700 of which work at Northeastern Hospital. The lawmakers are extremely concerned about how the cuts to services will impact the employees.

“This closing will harm hundreds of working families in the Northeast and negatively impact health care” said Stack. “It completely ignores the public’s reasonable request for input into the decision making process and their desire to keep the hospital open with all current services, including OB GYN.”

A reduction in services goes completely against Temple’s ‘Bold Ideas for a Brighter Tomorrow’ plan to provide high quality health care to the community,” Stack continued. “Instead, it’s doing the exact opposite by cutting services.”

“Temple could have spent its funding wisely, like using a larger portion of the $388 million surplus to make necessary changes at Northeastern,” Taylor said. “Instead, it has chosen the bottom line over top-of-the-line care.”

While the hospital will still have OB GYN outpatient services, including pre-natal care, it will no longer have an in-patient OB GYN unit, despite the fact that baby deliveries at Northeastern Hospital have increased from 1,362 in 2005 to 1,753 in 2008. Over the last several years, every maternity ward in Northeast Philadelphia has closed. This latest closure means that expectant mothers in the Northeast and river wards communities must travel to Center City or to Bucks or Montgomery counties to deliver a baby.

“Temple University Health System has cut off access to the last maternity ward in the entire Northeast section of the city,” Stack said. “Once again, Temple has put profits first and, consequently, turned its back to pregnant women who would normally rely on their community hospital to quickly and safely deliver their child.”

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