Health Care– Mission Bay Hospital closure’s impact is magnified by flu season

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Mission Bay Hospital will close it 128-bed facility Nov. 30, two months earlier than projected amid a decline in staff.

On Oct. 16, Mission Bay’s Dallas-based owner, Triad Hospitals Inc. said it will close its doors Jan. 24 as a result of low insurance reimbursements, low number of admissions and anticipated high costs to comply with earthquake safety retrofitting.

The news has triggered a rapid departure of medical staff to other health care facilities.

Other local hospitals quickly absorbed the clinical staff of doctors, nurses and other medical staff.

Now there aren’t enough doctors to cover emergency room services, said Christina Crouch, director of marketing.

Judith Yates, vice president of the Healthcare Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties, empathized with the hospital’s decision.

“We understand,” she said.

The loss of another acute care facility during this time of the year , the beginning of the flu season , could be especially problematic, Yates said.

“If we have an unusually bad flu season it will put greater pressure on the existing services,” she said. She added hospitals in the county have already started to boost its staff to treat a potentially much higher number of patients as the flu season progresses.

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