'A Real Inconvenience To The Community': Closing Of Mercy Hospital's Inpatient Services Causing Concern
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Mercy Hospital is closing down its inpatient services. The move is causing concern among people who live near it in Southwest and West Philadelphia.
A spokesperson from the hospital says they constantly evaluate how to best serve the community, and at the rate, Mercy has been losing money, it just isn't sustainable.
Over the next couple of months, Mercy Hospital will begin transitioning.
"That's gonna be a real inconvenience to the community," resident Tracie Jackson said.
It'll be shifting to what hospital officials consider a more sustainable model to serve the community. The 187-bed inpatient facility will become extinct.
"It's terrible. Where the people gonna go?" Jackson said.
This will be the second hospital to close in the city in under a year's time. Hahnemann University Hospital closed in July 2019.
Residents that rely on Mercy's inpatient services will have to find another hospital.
"It's gonna be bad for the community, the neighborhood, the elderly," resident Tracy Camaron said.
Hospital officials came to the financial realization that the facility simply cannot continue to operate in an acute-care capacity.
Some that live nearby say they won't be affected.
"Because I go to Einstein [Medical Center]. That's my hospital and my primary is in South Philly and I continue to go there," one woman said.
A hospital spokesperson says although they're making everyone aware of the closure, it's too early to speculate on an exact timeframe.
