FILLING THE VOID
WVU Medicine doctors will staff ER at Uniontown Hospital
WVU Medicine doctors will staff Uniontown Hospital’s emergency department and other areas of the hospital, while the number of community physician offices is cut in half in an ongoing reorganization at the 116-year-old institution.
Moreover, Uniontown Hospital will be assuming all of the costs associated with 50 doctors and advanced practice providers — the biggest medical group in Fayette County — as the 160-bed hospital struggles to maintain community medical services without a deeppocketed partner.
The hospital’s partnership with Pittsburgh-based health care giant UPMC runs out June 30,
leaving it responsible for the full cost of the services.
Details of the new arrangement were contained in an April 30 memo to staff from Uniontown Hospital CEO Steve Handy. Morgantown-based West Virginia Health System, known as WVU Medicine, is that state’s largest health system, comprising nine hospitals.
WVU Medicine officials had said they expected to sign an agreement with Uniontown Hospital by year’s end.
Hospital-owned physician practices often lose money, experts say, and Pittsburgh health system UPMC said earlier it had invested $10 million annually in a joint venture for eight years with Uniontown Hospital.
An estimate of the additional doctor salary and related costs to Uniontown Hospital was not available, spokesman Josh Krysak said, adding that the hospital is assuming complete control of the Fayette Physicians Network on July 1.
“It’s a tough situation for us right now,” Mr. Krysak said. “We have to take sole ownership for now.”
After June 30, only UPMC home care and Uniontown Hospital joint cancer treatment services will continue.
The number of primary care offices overseen by the physicians group will be reduced to two — Uniontown and Connellsville — from five currently, which are located in Brownsville, Masontown and Smithfield, Mr. Handy said.
Specialty medical services, including surgical and heart care, will be centralized into an on-campus clinic. A briefing for the hospital’s medical staff was scheduled for Thursday.
In the staff memo, Mr. Handy said a clinical affiliation with WVU Medicine was expected in the fall and emergency room and other hospital doctors would be provided by the West Virginia system in a purchased services arrangement, which was being finalized.
“It’s a tough situation for us right now.” — Josh Krysak, Uniontown Hospital spokesman
Care for patients needing obstetrics, orthopedics and lung issues would be referred to doctors outside the system.
The new expenses come at a challenging time for Uniontown Hospital.
Although net patient revenue reached a fouryear high in 2017 at $129 million, the hospital’s operating margin finished the year in the red, according to the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.
Uniontown Hospital, which is located about 56 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, is Fayette County’s third largest employer.
Mr. Handy’s latest note to employees came just a day after the hospital announced the June 30 closing of its pediatrics department and 13-bed maternity unit, where about 1,000 babies are born annually.
On April 2, Uniontown Hospital also said it would delay up to two years work on a $32 million campus upgrade, the biggest capital project in hospital history. The project included work on a three-story parking garage, patient and visitor area, and other upgrades.