If it is an inner city hospital (which it sounds like) I would be very surprised if it is not operating at a loss already. I can guarantee you they are not making anywhere near a 45 million dollar profit. This if sustained would sink any hospital. Imagine our cities without an inner city hospital with a level one trauma unit . Where will these patients go?
Most hospitals across the country are barely scraping by as is. Medicare and Medicaid are not enough to keep the doors open. When Obamacare hits many will likely have to close. In most major cities (and surrounding suburbs) there are not enough hospital beds to handle a bad flu season let alone an epidemic or mass casualty event. Of course that’s OK because we already have a nursing and doctor shortage. More people may have “insurance” but the system is marginal to start with and could easily collapse like a string of legos falling. Then where will all the newly insured and all the rest of us go for health care?? And don’t forget the aging of the population I’d already straining the system as more people awe getting too the age where they are more likely to need hospitalization but are moving into the lower paying Medicare population. I don’t think many hospital CEOs are sleeping well at night
It’s a heart-of-Atlanta public hospital. Funded largely by two counties and a budget from the state of Georgia.
So it has a huge contingent of non-paying patients, victims who sometimes have insurance who have unfortunately been hurt near there, etc.
Lately the hospital has been heavily advertising its expertise in burns, emergency services, diseases etc. trying to get metro-area insurance patients to use it.
One thing I’ll say is that it is the most capable hospital for gunshot wounds, knife wounds and the like - first rate trauma also.
If I were in an accident near there, I’d be taken there and I wouldn’t mind for a short while (to get stabilized) I’d then transfer somewhere else for recovery.
At a guess they try and balance revenues with expenses and likely operate at a small loss yearly. They probably get donations, gifts, which make up for losses. In NYC all the hospitals have buildings or wings named after donors.