Summa Health in Akron is projecting a massive loss in revenue this year. Hospital officials say the health system went from $30 million in profit last year to an anticipated loss of more than $60 million by the end of 2017.
As a result, Summa is eliminating some 300 jobs and will stop offering some services says hospital interim CEO Dr. Cliff Deveny. Deveny says the focus on is on keeping Summa independent and not having to merge with some other health system.
“ It’s a very competitive environment and northeast ohio is blessed with great health systems but like the rest of ohio we are not getting bigger and reimbursements are going down so we just have to be more nimble with our decision making but at the same time we have got to make sure the patient is the number one thing that we are focused on," Deveny said.
There are several reasons for the projected income loss including changes in the healthcare laws on both the state and federal level.
It’s been a rough year for Summa. In March, hospital administrators abruptly fired all the E.R. doctors. Then some nurses complained publicly that the quality of ER care had gone down as a result. And then, several local physicians lost confidence in the health system and stopped referring patients there, he said
“We did some deep dives into that in fact we even had the joint commission did a review of us for two days and it cited we actually had improved in some of our outcomes. No health system is perfect so where we do have issues we’re addressing them but we did see a significant change in attitude toward us as a result of some of that media coverage," he added.
Deveny says of the 300 positions being eliminated, about half are jobs that are currently open but won’t be filled. He adds, the hospital system’s goal is to eliminate administrative jobs first.
