The head of Heritage Valley Health System says the network’s Sewickley hospital isn’t going anywhere, despite the upcoming closure of its Kennedy counterpart.
“Clearly, there is a need for a hospital in that Sewickley community,” Heritage Valley President and CEO Norm Mitry told TribLive. “We don’t foresee any negative impact there.”
If anything, the shuttering of the old Ohio Valley Hospital at the end of June could be a boost for Heritage Valley Sewickley, just eight miles from Kennedy. The system’s only other hospital, in Brighton, lies 25 miles upriver.
Usage of the 118-year-old medical facility near Sewickley’s northern edge has been up since 2023, according to Mitry, when the nonprofit cut the Kennedy hospital’s intensive care units, pared back its surgical offerings and reduced its number of beds by just over a third.
Mitry was careful to frame the Kennedy closure, driven by declining patient activity and insufficient insurance reimbursements, as a strategic consolidation, rather than a sign of broader trouble for Heritage Valley.
Though the township is set to lose an emergency room and inpatient behavioral health unit as well as outpatient surgical, diagnostic imaging and lung rehabilitation services, these offerings will persist at Heritage Valley’s other hospitals.
Heritage Valley also is “actively exploring partnerships” to keep behavioral care going in Kennedy after the hospital’s closure, it said in a statement.
The medical office building next to the Kennedy hospital will add a walk-in clinic to partly make up for the lost emergency room, and continue to provide x-rays, lab draws, outpatient physical rehabilitation and doctors’ offices.
Heritage Valley is leaning into what it calls a medical neighborhood model, providing a mix of urgent care, diagnostics and other relatively simple services in one location, almost like a medical shopping center.
“It’s the commercialization of health,” Mitry said. “You see it everywhere. That’s why MedExpress has done well.”
Heritage Valley may have no choice but to evolve.
The network’s credit ratings have weakened in recent years, from AA- to A in 2023, and down further to A in 2024. Fitch Ratings, a New York City-based firm that assesses companies’ risk of failing to meet their debt obligations, also changed the system’s outlook last year from stable to negative.
Heritage Valley was projected to take a $30 million operating loss in Fiscal Year 2024 following four years in the red.
Even the region’s major integrated healthcare insurers and providers, UPMC and Highmark Health, have struggled in the current environment. UPMC reported $339 million in operating losses last year, and Highmark, which runs Allegheny Health Network, reported $209 million.
Sewickley impacts
Only time will tell how patients react to the closure.
“Whenever a hospital shuts down, that does cause their patients to have to move to other hospitals, and that can cause access problems where wait times go up, because you have the same number of patients fighting to get into a smaller number of health care facilities,” said Kevin Broom, a professor of health policy and management at the University of Pittsburgh. “Now, that’s based on the assumption that other hospitals don’t have the excess capacity to absorb that.”
Given its proximity to Kennedy, the Sewickley hospital may be the natural choice for displaced patients.
Heritage Valley Kennedy, however, is within a half-hour drive of several other hospitals, depending on traffic.
In Pittsburgh, there’s Allegheny General Hospital and UPMC Mercy. St. Clair Hospital is a short trip south, in Mt. Lebanon. And the North Hills boasts AHN Wexford, AHN McCandless and UPMC Passavant.
As for Kennedy hospital employees, they’ll be offered a comparable job within the network or a severance package. Heritage Valley has plenty of open positions, Mitry said, and “we believe we can handle almost everybody” impacted by the closure.
Heritage Valley employs about 3,400 people in all.
Physicians will go to Sewickley or Heritage Valley Ambulatory Surgery Center in Monaca, depending on their specialty. Mitry believes most patients will follow their doctors to these locations.
The system is bracing for a moderate bump in demand for diagnostic services in Sewickley.
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Speculation about Heritage Valley consolidating had been swirling for some time in Kennedy and Sewickley, though few people outside the nonprofit, it seems, knew exactly what was coming.
“We were blindsided,” said Kennedy Township Manager Gregory Clarke. “You hear rumors, but nothing directly from the hospital.”
Sewickley Council President Cynthia Mullins heard rumors, too, and was concerned. There’s a lot at stake for the borough.
The hospital employs hundreds of people, who then support local restaurants on their lunch breaks. And while many patients come to Heritage Valley Sewickley quite ill, others are simply there for routine visits and may spend the rest of their day patronizing businesses along Beaver Street.
Not to mention, people want easy access to care.
“I feel bad for folks in Kennedy, but I think people in our area take a great deal of comfort in the knowledge there’s an emergency department and hospital nearby,” Mullins said.
On a walk Monday afternoon, Ellen Bozarth, 73, of Sewickley recalled the “fabulous care” she received at Heritage Valley Sewickley after falling down the steps not too long ago. Her husband, John, had called ahead of time, and when she arrived minutes later, medical staff were waiting by the entrance to take her in.
Tessa Rodriguez, 38, of Leetsdale and her three children haven’t needed hospital care since they moved to the area, but they’ve already used walk-in clinics and primary care physicians within the Heritage Valley network.
“That’s one thing we’ve been really impressed with since we’ve moved here,” she said.