Mercy Health — Springfield and Urbana are part of a network of 48 Bon Secours Mercy Health hospitals in the U.S. and Ireland.
The hospital is contending with potential changes at the federal and state level, particularly related to Medicaid and Medicare, the 340B discount drug buying program, tariffs impacting drug costs, and other hospitals shuttering labor and delivery offerings, Groshans said.
Provider shortages, reimbursement and the continuing threat of cyber attacks to the healthcare industry also present challenges, Groshans said.
“We provide a service, that service comes at a cost, we provide that at our cost, we submit for reimbursement and then we hope to get that reimbursement, some fraction of that, maybe six months later,” Groshans said. “And then when we get it, it normally takes a considerable administrative burden to get that reimbursement.”
The 340B program allowed Mercy Health to extend its oncology program to Urbana, Groshans said, and reductions or cuts would make drugs unaffordable.
Health care
Mercy Health is continuing to offer women’s healthcare despite a $6 million loss in obstetrics in 2024. Around 80 hospitals have stopped offering obstetrics in Ohio.
“Who else is providing that service in this community?” Groshans said. “We’ve seen four that have shut down around us; it’s creating situations where moms are having to travel farther and farther.”
The area birthrate has increased 20% with the large Haitian immigrant population.
Mercy Health — Springfield also provides wound care and cancer care, which Groshans said is in response to needs from the community.
The Urbana cancer center opened in January, seeing 25 new patients in the first two months, chief operating officer Ben Merick said.
The leading causes of death in Clark County are cancer, followed by cardiac events then strokes, Brian Miller, director of community relations, said.
A lot of people “use the emergency room as their primary care physician,” which is expensive for both the patient and the hospital, Miller said. Mercy Health is now looking for ways to decrease the cost of health care and partner with insurance payers to improve patient outcomes, he said.
“We know that we have a number of barriers in our community, so we’re targeting these folks, the folks that come to the emergency department a lot, the folks that call 911 frequently for non-urgent needs,” Miller said. “We’re trying to get into their homes to do some assessments of their space to see if they have food insecurity, to see if they’re a fall risk. Once we have identified some of those barriers, then we work with existing community resources to help alleviate whatever burden that is.”
Springfield has quick stroke and cardiac care, and chief nursing officer Rhonda Beane said the time from emergency department to table for someone having a stroke or cardiac event is less than 60 minutes.
Potential changes, AI
Mercy Health is exploring the use of artificial intelligence, like AI-powered robots to clean rooms, ambient listening devices to help with documentation, reading imaging to find things that might be overlooked, forecasting for reimbursement and wayfinding for the emergency room, Groshans said.
“There are a lot of different ways that we’re exploring uses of AI and then there’s also a lot of case studies right now for the legal protections because that’s a whole lot of patient information that’s out there in a new and different way with a whole different set of creditors,” Groshans said.
In response to a question about telehealth, Merick said patients prefer seeing their provider in person, although telehealth can provide more flexibility.
Telehealth during the pandemic let some healthcare workers, like those reading radiology images, work from home, which increased the cost of imaging services and left gaps, Merick said.
“Radiology is a perfect example of how it’s both enhanced the access to care and dramatically raised the cost of care,” Merick said.
The hospital reached $34 million in direct community benefit, Groshans said.
“There’s not another health system that is doing this in the community,” Groshans said.
About the Author
