Prince George’s Hospital Center, the county’s largest provider of inpatient and emergency medical care, is in serious financial trouble. An emergency transfusion of $5 million was required just to keep its doors open until the end of this month, then another $9 million is required to keep it operating through June. It’s time to stop the Band-Aids and find a permanent solution.
In return for the bailout, the hospital has agreed to turn over all financial records to county officials. County Executive Jack Johnson blames “inefficiencies” by the facility’s operator, the nonprofit Dimensions Health care Systems of Cheverly, as the primary cause of the hospital’s chronic financial illness. No doubt that’s partially true, as five previous studies found much room for improvement.
Maryland chipped in more than $15 million in the last three years in an attempt to stave off closure of the 63-year-old hospital because half of its patients are either uninsured or are on Medicaid, the highest percentage among all Maryland hospitals. With such a high indigent patient load, $138 million in debt and pension obligations, and outdated equipment, Dimensions officials estimate they’ll need at least $100 million to make the hospital attractive to insured middle-class residents who can make the facility financially viable but who now go outside the county for care.
Closing down is an alternative, but that would also shutter Maryland’s second-busiest trauma center and leave 90,000 uninsured patients with few options. A recent study found that the University of
Maryland Medical System has gobbled up almost two-thirds of the $370 million state capital funding devoted to hospitals since 1975; Prince George’s got just $19 million. It’s obviously time to set new priorities.
In the long term, however, structural change in how Americans pay for medical care is needed. President George W. Bush’s current proposal to eliminate payroll and income taxes on heath insurance and to give health care tax credits to lower-income families would help many more afford basic coverage. That would also be a boost for facilities like Prince George’s Hospital Center.
