IRON MOUNTAIN, MI-- Numbers are down, and Dickinson County Healthcare System is again asking the local community for continued support.
The June financial report says outpatient volumes year-to-date are down 4 percent from the same point last year. Inpatient volumes are down 19.4 percent for the same period.
Hospital officials say they continue to decrease expenses wherever possible, but the reduction in patient revenues continues to affect the bottom line. DCHS has decreased its workforce by 80 full-time-equivalent employees, or 10 percent, since June of last year. CEO John Schon says if patient numbers had stayed the same from 2017, many of those jobs wouldn’t have been eliminated.
In a press release, DCHS officials said, “There is an aggressive, direct competitor in our market and they are funneling healthcare dollars into other communities and away from DCHS.” They are presumably talking about Bellin Health.
