Health system may eliminate two hospitals, 4,500 jobs

It appears that things are only going to get worse for financially challenged Jackson Health System in Florida. If approved, a revised plan presented to Jackson's Public Heath Trust board by Eneida Roldan, the system's president and CEO, would trim the FY2010 budget gap by $165.4 million by closing two hospitals and cutting close to 4,500 jobs, a whopping 37 percent of the system's employees. Even after all that, the system still would have a $64 million budget gap in this fiscal year, reports the South Florida Business Journal. 

The two systems on the chopping block--Jackson South, which has 199 beds and 771 full-time employees, and Jackson North, which has 382 beds and 830 full-time employees--are satellite hospitals for Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. They initially were acquired with the intent of turning a profit, but instead have only caused the system to bleed money. 

Brian Keeley, CEO of Baptist Health South Florida, Miami's biggest private hospital system, called the potential closings a "disaster," and pointed to an uninsured rate of "between 20 and 30 percent" as one of the possible reasons for Jackson's troubles. 

"Nationally, [the uninsured rate] is around 18 or 19 percent," Keeley told the New York Times. 

The Miami Labor Relations Examiner reports that Jackson, which has cut 600 positions since June of last year and has blamed bad accounting for a lot of its financial woes, has about 45 days of operating cash left. The board has until March 22 to approve the plan. 

For more information about Jackson Health:
- read the South Florida Business Journal article
- here's the New York Times article
- here's the Miami Labor Relations Examiner piece

Related Articles:
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Bad accounting creates financial crisis at Fla. health system
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