Valley hospitals hurting - Arizona Republic
10.01.09
The bad economy means fewer patients, said Dale Spartz, vice president of human resources at John C. Lincoln Health Network. "Our patient volumes are not anywhere near what we thought they would be."
John C. Lincoln has suspended plans to build a new patient tower at its North Mountain Hospital in the Sunnyslope area of Phoenix. The hospital's budget managers expect to take further action, perhaps as early as mid-February.
Banner Health, Arizona's second-largest private employer after Walmart, laid off six workers this week as it closed a bariatric unit at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center and folded it into weight-loss units at two other Banner hospitals in Gilbert and the West Valley.
The system had seen a nearly 10 percent increase in employment from 2007 to 2008 and continues its growth: In September, it acquired Sun Health and its two Sun City area hospitals and will open a new children's hospital building at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa. But it expects to trim $60 million from its budget this year through measures such as delaying the opening of its Ironwood hospital under construction in Queen Creek, limiting travel, enforcing time-clock procedures, foregoing uniform purchases and halting executive pay raises.
Source: Arizona Republic, AZ