Pandemic challenging for rural hospitals

By JEFF STITT

jstitt@yourmvi.com

A large group of state and local lawmakers met with regional hospital leaders Monday at Monongahela Valley Hospital to discuss challenges facing rural community hospitals in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

State Sen. Dave Argall, R-West Chester, said the Senate Majority Policy Committee public workshop, which was simulcast via Zoom for the public to observe, was held at the request of state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, a Republican from Carroll Township, where Mon Valley Hospital is located.

Argall, Bartolotta, Sens. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York, Pat Stefano, R-Bullskin Township, Kim Ward, R-Greensburg, Judy Ward, R-Altoona, Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock; Stephanie Watkins of the Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania; Washington Health System Greene President Terry Wiltrout; MVH CEO Louis J. Panza Jr.; Washington County commissioners Diana Irey Vaughan, Larry Maggi and Nick Sherman; and Greene County commissioners Mike Belding and Betsy McClure spent two hours discussing how the pandemic and government restrictions have impacted finances, operations and patient concerns at MVH and Washington Health System Greene.

Panza said state Department of Health orders to halt elective procedures hurt community hospitals.

“Seventy percent of what we do is elective,” Panza said. “When a community hospital is shut down for elective surgeries, you’re shutting the hospital down. That’s a significant issue because that’s what we deal with on a regular basis — the electives. 

“That was a major killer for any community hospital, rural hospital because that’s the support of a hospital like ours.”

Canceling electives, Panza said, meant people couldn’t have regular procedures such as colonoscopies, blood pressure screenings, bone density tests and more.

Asked by Bartolotta to give an example of how WHS Greene was impacted by halting electives, Wiltrout said his hospital system lost revenue when it had to cancel 4,000 radiology procedures, 2,000 of which were for women to have their annual mammograms.

Watkins said the hospitals commenced performing elective procedures over the past month or so, but are continuing to see lower numbers than usual of people having those procedures. Patients are worried that it’s not safe to visit a hospital for those procedures or actual emergencies because they fear they’ll be exposed to COVID-19.

“We’ve seen a decrease in cancer diagnosis. Cancer didn’t go away,” Panza said, adding that he’s worried people are going untreated because they’re afraid of visiting the hospital. “We’re going to see a much higher rate of stage 2 or 3 or 4 cancer because people are still afraid to come to the doctor or emergency room.”

To read the rest of this story, please see a copy of Tuesday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at https://e.monvalleyindependent.com.