Administrators at Spaulding Hospital have announced that it will shut down The Spaulding Hospital for Continuing Medical Care North Shore’s inpatient operations by the end of September 2015, with the hospital saying that new federal regulations will severely impact patient volume.
Approximately 320 people are scheduled to be laid off because of this move and Spaulding has indicated they would, where appropriate, be assigning some displaced staff to other positions within its parent Partners HealthCare system while others will be receiving severance packages.
The Salem location, formerly known as the Shaughnessy-Kaplan Rehabilitation Hospital, has been experiencing declining inpatient numbers for years and now operates below 50% capacity. Given recent policy changes at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, inpatient volume was predicted to dip to below 32 percent.
“The dramatic further decline based on the new admitting criteria established by CMS has created an untenable situation. Sadly, it is no longer viable to continue SNS’s inpatient services,” said David Storto, president of Partners Continuing Care, and Maureen Banks, president of Spaulding Hospital for Continuing Medical Care North Shore.
“The new LTAC regulations will not impact Spaulding Hospital Cambridge to the same degree because of a different Medicare mix and a greater number of referring hospitals,” Spaulding officials said.
Spokespeople for Partners HealthCare say the CMS changes won’t affect patient services at any of their other hospitals. Both inpatient and outpatient services will still be available in Charlestown, Cambridge and on Cape Cod, as well as at skilled nursing facilities in Boston and outpatient sites in the North Shore.
