Parkview Community Hospital has emerged from its 2002 bankruptcy better off financially, partly because of its bariatric surgery center, which is the only one in Riverside.
The hospital is on track to perform as many as 200 of the weight-loss surgeries this year, which could bring in an estimated $25,000 per procedure and ease the losses that plague hospitals nationwide.
All emergency rooms at Riverside and San Bernardino county hospitals lost money in 2001, according to the California Medical Association's 2004 annual emergency room losses report, its most recent. Parkview's emergency room lost $176,013 in 2001, according to the report.
Hospitals tend to select programs like orthopedics and cardiac care to round out their budgets because reimbursement rates are good and more people need them as they get older.
Experts say hospitals must invest in the medical specialties to compensate for money they lose caring for Medi-Cal and indigent patients seen in emergency rooms.
"Losses carried for three to five years are very strong predictors of closure," he said, including hospitals that are part of profitable health care groups. "They won't deal with losses forever. That means (a low-performing hospital) is a likely target for being sold."
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