How Saint Alphonsus says ending some pediatric services will affect patients, workers

Many workplaces and business have been affected by COVID-19 but few more so than hospitals. Saint Alphonsus Health System says the effects of the pandemic have forced it to make cuts in medical care and to cut some jobs in the Boise area.

“While Saint Alphonsus expected and planned for the changes a global pandemic would bring, the negative impact and lasting effects are much more significant than health care organizations predicted,” a Saint Alphonsus news release said.

Those changes in the last two years included patient volumes, staffing challenges, high-cost agency contracts and increased pharmacy costs, according to Saint Alphonsus.

The hospital said it has had to implement “long-term and short-term solutions” to keep its operations running. One of those solutions is to drop two programs in Idaho’s Treasure Valley, both in pediatrics.

Hospital officials say they have closed inpatient pediatric medical and general surgery services at their largest hospital, the Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise; and closed the Saint Alphonsus Rehabilitation Services pediatric therapy clinic in Meridian, known as STARS.

“The inpatient pediatric medical and general surgical services experienced low census prepandemic, but the costs associated with maintaining those services became too great in light of other pandemic-related costs and expenses,” Mark Snider, a hospital spokesperson, told the Idaho Statesman in an email.

The pediatric inpatient medical and surgical services saw an average of fewer than two patients per day over the last two years, Saint Alphonsus said. The rehabilitation unit in Meridian was affected early in the pandemic when staffers there could not conduct in-person visits. It has not recovered its previous volumes.

Saint Alphonsus said the announcement “does not impact other Saint Alphonsus Medical Group clinics in Meridian.” Only the pediatric inpatient and surgical services within the Boise hospital will close, while other pediatric services will remain.

“We still offer pediatric care at our family medicine and pediatric clinics,” Snider said.

The Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center said its trauma team will continue to serve trauma pediatric patients and will “determine on a case-by-case evaluation” whether to send trauma patients under age 15 to St. Luke’s for ongoing care.

A factor in the closure was availability of these services are elsewhere in the community. Saint Alphonsus said its staff has been working with St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital in Boise and will continue to do so for “specific medical and surgical pediatric care.”

The news release indicated that some employees will lose their jobs as a result of the closure. Snider declined to provide further information on those losses.

“Colleagues whose positions will be eliminated will be eligible for a severance package that includes pay, medical coverage and other benefits,” the news release said.

Saint Alphonsus is pat of Trinity Health, a nationwide Catholic health care system.