Baystate, Mercy advocate takeover as public worries about ER waits, delivery rooms, Medicare

SPRINGFIELD — Despite precarious finances and declining business and questions about its long-term viability, Mercy Medical Center still discharges more than 7,800 patients and logs 44,000 emergency room visits a year.

“So why is that important? This is important because Springfield needs two hospitals, full stop,” said Dr. Scott Lichtenberger, chief operating officer of Baystate Health. “So if Mercy Medical Center didn’t exist, Baystate could not absorb, not only at Baystate Medical Center, but even across our system, that kind of volume.”

Baystate Health and Mercy Medical Center announced plans last month for the larger Baystate to take over much of Mercy’s Massachusetts operations effective Nov. 1.

Tuesday night, executives from both hospitals explained the pending takeover to the public at a forum mandated by the state approval process. The event was held at the South End Community Center.

Mercy gets nearly 80% of its patient revenue from public payers like Medicare and Medicaid, according to the state’s Center for Health Information and Analysis data from 2023.

That’s the highest percentage in the state, said Dr. Robert Roose, president of community hospitals for Mercy’s current owner, Trinity Health of New England.

Medicaid reimburses, on average, about 62 cents on the dollar, Medicare about 85 cents.

“So there’s a financial equation that can be difficult to sustain,” Roose said.

Baystate Medical Center is only slightly better off, at about 73% government payers.

But it’s bigger, with 44,000 inpatient discharges a year and 144,000 emergency room visits, making it the 25th busiest emergency room in the nation.

But Baystate is constrained by a lack of hospital beds and by difficulty attracting doctors, said Dean Sanpei, Baystate’s chief strategy officer.

Mercy’s 191 beds, added to the 780 at Baystate Medical Center, will solve one problem and the stability of combining the institutions will help recruit.

Mercy’s emergency room will remain open, Baystate officials said in response to a question from Rachelle Lee of Springfield.

“The reason why I ask that is because if someone goes to the emergency room they can spend two days waiting ... and that’s egregious,” Lee said. “And then I keep hearing ‘jobs and recruitment’ and one thing I do know is that in the last couple of years Baystate has laid off like 250 people. Like how do you intend to work that?”

Sanpei answered that Baystate has had to cut back due to economic pressures on all of health care.

President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill will cost Baystate Health $146.7 million a year.

Crowds also asked about obstetrics. Baystate, which handles 4,400 births a year, will probably break the 5,000 mark this year after the closure of Mercy’s delivery rooms.

“The service is there now. We’re accommodating all those,” Lichtenberger said.

After the takeover is official, Baystate will meet with Mercy clinicians. But Mercy’s obstetricians and midwives have largely left, as only one nurse midwife remains.

Baystate can’t reopen the delivery rooms at Mercy without doctors. And at Baystate, one doctor can move quickly from room to room, patient to patient.

Mickey E. Harris, executive director of Springfield Partners for Community Action, said all these changes are coming when people are facing cutbacks from that same Trump domestic policy bill, from a higher cost of living, from a housing crisis.

“People are afraid to go to the hospital,” he said.

He said Mercy and Baystate need to communicate better with the community.

Only a few people attended the hourlong session at the South End Community Center. Many are in the health insurance business. A few work in health care or in community agencies.

There are no other forums scheduled.

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