Providence Saint Joseph announced last week it would cut 94 jobs and shutter its occupational health, urgent care, and diabetic foot centers, along with its transitional-care unit, citing economic impacts on its revenues. It will also reorganize its cardiac rehabilitation program to trim positions.
While Glendale Adventist has not been immune to the financial challenges facing other hospitals in the region, it is already seeing an increase in demand for its occupational health services because of the closure, and is expecting more growth to come.
The hospital’s occupational medicine center treats patients for work-related injuries and also has mobile health clinics that allow it to provide health exams to companies and their employees, without requiring them to leave their offices, Van Houten said.
“We’ve been contacted by a number of employers in the Burbank community, and they are preparing to start sending patients to our facility starting next week,” she said.
The hospital is also planning on continuing with previously planned expansions of its facilities and will open its recently completed ambulatory surgery center this month, said Alicia Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Glendale Adventist. Officials are hiring for positions at the new center.
Despite the apparent benefits to Glendale Adventist from the closures at Providence Saint Joseph, the hospital has still seen a slight decline in patients, as other medical centers have, Gonzalez said.
Glendale Memorial Hospital has also seen a slight decrease in patient admissions for elective surgical treatments, spokeswoman Amy Stricker said.
Elective procedures, like colonoscopies, weight-loss procedures and other voluntary exams, are major revenue-generators and are down at most hospitals because of the economy, officials said, although they did not provide specific figures.
