Oregon’s third-largest city is about to lose its only hospital as PeaceHealth announced last week its plan to shutter University District hospital because of underutilization, Bloomberg News reported. The hospital in Eugene, which is home to the University of Oregon, loses an average of $2 million a month, PeaceHealth, a nonprofit Catholic health system, said in a press release. The departure will leave roughly 23,000 college students without an emergency room in town. Diminishing patient volume puts a squeeze on operating margins, leaving hospitals across the nation unable to pay their bills. Fewer procedures were a factor in the decline in an index tracking the median calendar year-to-date operating margins for more than 1,300 US hospitals, according to a report by consulting firm Kaufman Hall. The index slid to 1.3% in July from 1.4% a month earlier. Should PeaceHealth receive regulatory approval, it will shutter the hospital’s 27 inpatient beds along with emergency and rehabilitation departments. It plans to shift other medical services to Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend, a hospital it operates in Springfield about six miles away.
