Saint Francis Hospital: Financial Struggles & Staffing Crisis

0:00It's March 29th. Welcome in. This is Hartford News today, where local news meets AI. I'm Corey with the story. St. Francis Hospital in Hartford is hitting rough waters with big financial losses and staffing headaches. Last year, they racked up 914 million dollars in expenses but lost 54 million, leaving a negative 6.4%. Operating margin. State rep and Dr. Amar Anwar just had a straight talk with Trinity Health CEO Montez Carter. Stressing the need for better community services and Carter agreed to step up. Trinity Health, running 92 hospitals nationwide, pumped over 1 billion dollars into its New England spots over the past decade, including St. Francis. But low Medicaid reimbursements are hurting since the hospital treats tons of those patients. Meanwhile, they're cutting costs by switching to standardized meals starting April 1st. No more custom orders for patients. Stages are sounding alarms on chronic understaffing, high turnover, medication errors, and

1:04care delays. Elebators have been busted since January, even the trauma one, and safety events pile up daily. Staff worry the State Department of Public Health isn't sharing enough details on fixes. Fifteen hospitalists bounced last year after a forced switch to an out-of-state group, and over 40 radiologists sued and left in March though. Trinity says they onboarded new ones for round-the-clock coverage. The State's oversight monitor got extended six more months, and St. Francis holds a lowly two-star rating from Medicare on safety, re-emissions, and care quality. Annoirs optimistic about Trinity's pledge to boost safety, invest more, and keep the doors open for the community that relies on it. With real-time staffing tweaks and quality reviews in play, fingers crossed this turns the tide before things spiral further.