UPMC Trims 410 Beds As Admissions Fall
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Industry trend is reflected in UPMC move to cut beds and raise occupancy rates.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has eliminated 410 hospital, psychiatric, and long-term care beds over the previous six months as a result of the continued lower numbers of admissions, a move reflecting trends being seen in hospitals nationwide. Shutting down the beds pushed UPMC's overall occupancy to 79 percent, much higher than many hospitals in the region and the highest at UPMC since at least 2012, the hospital reported.
Trimming and expanding bed counts is routine in the system, UPMC spokeswoman Susan Manko told the Pittsburgh Business Times. “We're always adding, flexing up and flexing down, depending on patient needs,” she said. Closing the beds has had no impact on employment at the system.
The hospital had reported a total of 4,429 total beds in service as of Dec. 31, down 8.4 percent from 4,839 beds during the same six-month period in 2013. The deepest cuts in that drop were to skilled nursing beds and medical-surgical beds. During the same timeframe, UPMC increased its rehabilitation beds by 11 percent to 180.
Recent hospital acquisitions also expanded UPMC's capacity and broadened its geographic reach, and some services were shifted to newly acquired hospitals. Patients followed, creating capacity at UPMC's tertiary hospitals. “We are always shifting services to where they are needed in the setting in which they are needed,” Manko told Modern Healthcare.
UPMC's medical-surgical patient discharges declined 4.7 percent in Allegheny County to 86,251 while overall hospital discharges in the region fell 3.6 percent to 142,327. Independent hospitals throughout the region have reported declining admissions due to higher out-of-pocket expenses for patients, out-patient treatment options, and other factors.
But UPMC is merely echoing a national trend, as Moody's Investors Service said in a report last month. “Hospitals don't want to have to staff more beds than they have to,” Daniel Steingart, a Moody's vice president and the rating agency's senior analyst who tracks Baxter Regional, told Modern Healthcare.
The median for hospital admissions fell 1.3 percent in 2013, according to Moody’s, after four years of stagnation. Decreases in hospital admissions are also visible in the recent slowdown in U.S. healthcare spending and federal snapshots of hospital demand.
The complete UPMC Quarterly Report may be found here.