Shriners may downgrade some hospitals
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SAN ANTONIO - The Shriners will continue treating children in all 22 cities where they operate hospitals, but some of the facilities may be downgraded to outpatient surgical centers and the sale or lease of real estate will be explored, the nonprofit’s new chief executive said yesterday.
“We’ve not changed who we are. We will always take care of children the best we can,’’ said Douglas Maxwell, the newly elected CEO of Shriners Hospitals for Children.
Florida-based Shriners International also will explore selling or leasing some of its hospital real estate to reduce its $856 million operating budget, Maxwell said.
The 1,300 Shriners who are members of the hospital’s governing body rejected a proposal to close six facilities - including one in Springfield, Mass. - permanently. They instead opted to explore downsizing the hospital system’s operations and to accepting insurance payments for the first time. The hospitals historically have provided care at no charge to any child they thought they could help, and Maxwell said they will continue to do so.
It’s unclear how much revenue insurance reimbursements would provide or how quickly the hospitals could establish systems to bill insurers, though Maxwell said he hopes it will be within the year.
The hospitals have been funded primarily through an endowment, which has fallen from $8 billion to $5 billion in the economic downturn, but Maxwell said the system will be able to remain solvent in the long term.
In 2007, the Shriners were accused of using donations intended for hospitals to throw parties and of lax accounting that mingled hospital donations with club funds in some locations, allegations they have disputed.
