No 11th-hour reprieve for Northeastern Hospital

THERE WAS A brief moment when advocates for Northeastern Hospital thought that they had found a glimmer of hope in the hospital's otherwise grim prognosis.

Temple University Health System officials, facing fierce political and public opposition to their plan to close the Port Richmond hospital, unexpectedly agreed on April 9 to hold off dismantling portions of it for 30 days.

Ultimately, the delay meant nothing. No miracle cure was found for Northeastern's financial woes, and Temple is now forging ahead with its efforts to end all inpatient services by June 30.

Layoffs for some employees will go into effect tomorrow and Friday, Temple officials said. It's unclear how many will lose their jobs.

Fire rescue ambulances, meanwhile, have stopped taking patients to Northeastern's emergency department, the officials said.

The hospital, at Allegheny Avenue and Tulip Street, will reopen July 1 as an ambulatory care center, which will offer an array of outpatient services.

Of course, that's little consolation to the workers who will soon be unemployed, or to the residents of Port Richmond, Fishtown, Kensington and Bridesburg who relied on the hospital for generations.

"It's disappointing. There's no miracle funding cure from any level of government, so they're going to do what they want," said state Rep. John Taylor.

Taylor, R-Phila., has been at the forefront of a grassroots effort to save Northeastern since March 23, when Temple announced that the nearly 100-year-old hospital would shut down because of mounting losses.

He convinced Temple officials to agree to the 30-day delay.

"I think we bought a little time, but it was a long shot," Taylor said.

"They're bleeding money, and eventually the whole thing kind of fell under its own weight."

John Buckley, the hospital's chief executive, said that Northeastern lost $6.6 million in fiscal year 2008, and was projected to lose $15 million this year.

But the hospital was plagued with more than just red ink. Buckley, in an interview last month with the Daily News, described a plethora of systemic problems that seemed to threaten the foundation of Northeastern - and the rest of the Temple University Health System, which includes three other hospitals.

More than 53 percent of Northeastern's patients use Medicaid, which compensates the hospital for 75 percent of what it costs to treat patients, Buckley noted.

He said that a "disproportionately high number" of the 48,000 people who visit Northeastern's emergency department are there for primary care.

The hospital was also in need of a $100 million makeover.

Buckley said that those facts - coupled with a high debt load and mounting operating losses suffered by the rest of Temple Health System - left him and other officials with no choice. Northeastern had to close.

Patients were encouraged to visit Temple's other hospitals.

"This will be an enormous blow. A lot of folks will just end up at already overcrowded health centers," said Jerry Silberman, a local leader of the union that represents Northeastern's nurses.

Temple tried to soften the blow by announcing that part of Northeastern would remain open and offer outpatient services, including neonatal care, radiology and cancer and cardiac care.

Health-system officials were promptly ridiculed by local elected leaders, who claimed - rightly so - that Temple had kept them in the dark for months about their plans for Northeastern.

Taylor, who was livid over the 848 hospital jobs that were at risk, threatened to cut off more than $150 million in funding that Temple receives from the state.

State Sen. Mike Stack, D-Pa., said that Temple was adding to the region's health-care crisis by closing Northeastern.

Community residents considered filing a restraining order against Temple to temporarily spare the hospital. Silberman also organized a protest outside the Union League, in Center City, on May 9 when Temple University president Ann Weaver Hart hosted a fundraiser for Temple's organ-transplant programs.

"Ultimately, it would have taken strong intervention from Gov. Rendell or Congressman Brady to alter the outcome, and none of those folks chose to take those steps," Silberman said.

Taylor noted that it was unlikely that anyone could have rescued Northeastern. "I think this is not the only hospital in this situation across the state," he said. "Their problem comes from the system itself. They're getting paid 75 cents for every dollar they spend. No amount of money can straighten that out."

Taylor said that his main concern remains "hopefully getting everybody gainfully employed."

Temple spokeswoman

Rebecca Harmon said in an e-mail that "of the less than 400 employees [who] have expressed an interest in seeking alternative employment, 229 employees have been re-employed; and of that total, 167 have been placed in other positions" at Temple hospitals.

"Until we get a national health-care system or a single-payer system in Pennsylvania, we'll be seeing more situations like this," Silberman said. *