frkJay, may 1, 1981
daily nebraskan
page 7
Hospital oversupply continues
By Mark Iloerth
In its two years of existence, the Nebraska certificate
of need law has done little to improve one of the largest
hospital oversupply problems in the nation.
Calling statewide bed oversupply "gross waste," Ken
neth Diamond, Director of the State Health Planning
and Development Agency, said Nebraska has more hospit
al beds per thousand population than most of its neighb
oring states, and more than 40 percent of them are empty
on any given day.
This oversupply, Diamond said, has contributed to
the 305 percent increase in personal health expenses
among Nebraskans since 1966.
The Nebraska certificate of need law was passed in
1979 as the state's first and only means of controlling
hospital growth. It was aimed to end spiraling duplication
of medical services by requiring state review of any new
health care service that costs the provider more than
$100,000.
In the past, "competition between Nebraska's hospit
als to be the biggest hospital' with the best equipment,"
caused a critical oversupply of beds and medical services,
said Sen. Don Wesley of Lincoln, vice chairman of the
Legislature's Public Health and Welfare Committee.
But the law's sponsor two years ago, Sen. Sam Cullan
of Hemingtord, chairman of the Health Committee,
today believes the "law has not been particularly effective
and should be abolished."
Causes cost problem
Hospital bed oversupply is still a "definite cost prob
lem, efficiency problem, and effectiveness problem,"
in Lincoln, said Richard Hay den, administartor of Lincoln
General Hospital.
Because the cost of "care delivered to each of us would
be less," Hayden called for better health planning in the
future and elimination of unnecessary beds and services
in the Lincoln area.
Hayden, who came to Lincoln General a year ago,
said that among the three city hospitals, there are 100
excess hospital beds. In addition, each hospital is hand
ling a "less than appropriate amount of volume."
Lack of need has kept the top two floors of Lincoln
General, room for 176 beds, closed. If this total capacity
is added 4 the excess for the three hospitals climbs to 276
beds. Those beds could be available with little time- or
expense, Hayden said.
Despite this excess, Lincoln General and the other
Lincoln hospitals compare favorably with minimum
standards of occupied beds as determined by the State
Health Department.
In its Five Year Facilites Plan, the department estab
lished that the average occupancy for Southeat Nebraska
hospitals should be at least 80 percent.
Lincoln hospitals occupancy
Based on a total of 245 beds, Lincoln General records
an average daily occupance of 76 percent s.
Of the 208 beds in use at St. Elizabeth Community
Health Center, 74.8 percent of them are occupied on any
given day.
At Bryan Memorial Hospital, 80.6 percent of the 340
available beds are occupied daily.
According to the State Facilites Plan, these rates make
southeast Nebraska the region of second highest occu
pancy in the state. However, Hayden sees a need to bring
"occupancy higher because that means more efficiency
and less cost unit."
Because the cost to a hospital of keeping an empty
bed is three-fourths of the cost of a full bed, economics
create "a strong tendency to fill those empty beds,"
Diamond said.
"Oversupply of health care creates its own demand."
People are hospitalized at a much higher rate in certain
parts of the state. These areas "correlate directly to where
there is this kind of oversupply," Diamond said.
Services overlap
A desire on the part of every hospital to be full service
also causes an overlap in the types of services Lincoln
hospitals provide.
Specifically, the needs of Lincoln could be fulfilled
by two hospital pediatrics departments, but there are
three presently in operation, Hayden said.
Lincoln General and Bryan maintain psychiatric wards,
and neither is running at ideal capacity, Hayden said.
All three hospitals have obstetrics departments, but the
need could be filled with just one department, Hayden
said.
Besides the "economic advantages to close these un
necessary facilites," Hayden said, the quality of care
would be improved if these areas were combined.
Continued on Page 8
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