Andy Fitzpatrick

Battle Creek Enquirer

Southwest Regional Rehabilitation Center will cease operations, the hospital leadership announced Thursday.

According to a news release, the hospital's Board of Trustees decided Wednesday to shut it down, blaming changes in Medicare and Medicaid payments and fewer patients for the closure of the 26-bed facility at 393 E. Roosevelt Ave.

"We wish we weren't writing the final chapter, but the changing healthcare environment has left us no alternative," Board Chairman Jim Hettinger was quoted as saying in the release.

Southwest Regional CEO Kevin Arnold told the Enquirer ongoing changes to Medicare and Medicaid payments made things difficult for the hospital.

"If we treat certain orthopedic patients here, for example, that could be treated in a less costly environment, such as a nursing home, then Medicare expects that those patients would be admitted to a nursing home, not an acute rehab hospital," Arnold said.

The national nonprofit Medicare Rights Center's information on acute rehabilitation hospitals indicates that Medicare will pay for such treatment, but mostly in cases of other complicating factors.

"Examples of common conditions that may qualify you for care in a rehabilitation hospital include stroke, spinal cord injury or brain injury," the agency says at www.medicareinteractive.org. "You will be less likely to qualify for care in a rehabilitation hospital if you are recovering from hip or knee replacement and have no other complicating condition."

Arnold said that's not the only factor that led to the closure; dwindling patient levels were also a problem. For Southwest Regional to break even, he said, there would need to be 16 to 18 inpatients.

"We haven't been at 16 patients since about 2012," Arnold said. "In 2013, we're down to 14 and now so far we're just over 11.1 patients."

On Thursday, Arnold said there were six patients in the facility and one was going to be discharged Friday. Patients that need to complete rehabilitation will be referred to other providers.

One of the places patients could be transferred is Grand Rapids' Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital's Kalamazoo location, operated with Bronson Healthcare, Hettinger said. Borgess Health's rehab services are also an option.

"Our intention is to make sure that both of those, because they're local, are part of this overall mix of rehab care in the Battle Creek-Kalamazoo area," Hettinger said.

Mary Free Bed became a management partner of Southwest Regional in 2012. That agreement continues, Arnold said, as Southwest Regional transitions to organizing patient care even though that entity will no longer have a hospital.

Southwest Regional has 96 full-time and part-time employees, and another 43 on-call workers. Arnold informed them of the closure at an emergency meeting Thursday morning.

Arnold said he told employees their new mission had two goals.

"One is to continue treating our patients with the care and passion that we always have until they've been transitioned to another facility or fully rehabilitated over the next few days," Arnold said. "The other thing is our commitment to our staff."

Arnold and Hettinger said the organization will work with health care providers in the area to help the employees find new work.

"We're making efforts with other hospitals, other health care facilities, Bronson, Mary Free Bed, and others to help make that happen," Arnold said. "We also have some board members who are helping out with helping us find placement services through agencies and that sort of thing."

Kalamazoo-based Bronson Healthcare released a statement on the closure Thursday that addressed both patient and employee needs.

"Our case managers and discharge planners meet daily to assess each Bronson patient and determine the appropriate level of care required post discharge," the statement said. "Additionally, we are reaching out to Southwest Regional Rehabilitation Center to try to retain jobs in the area by matching up some of the displaced workers with job openings in the Bronson Healthcare system."

Oaklawn Hospital President and CEO Ginger Williams said in a statement Friday that the situation is "an unfortunate, but entirely predictable, consequence of health care reform."

"For those patients receiving outpatient rehabilitation, Oaklawn has extensive outpatient physical therapy and rehabilitation available in Battle Creek and other communities," Williams said in the statement. "We will make whatever accommodations are necessary to assist Southwest Rehab's outpatients to receive the care they need."

Arnold said there is no set date for a complete closure yet.

"By midweek next week all our inpatients will be discharged and placed in other facilities," Arnold said. "We'll continue outpatient services for a few weeks until we can ensure that our patients are treated in a facility where they'll get the best treatment."

Call Andy Fitzpatrick at 966-0697. Follow him on Twitter: @am_fitzpatrick