Beebe Healthcare is dropping plans to add more beds to its Lewes campus after officials realized fewer people are being admitted to the hospital than in previous years.
Officials don’t believe this is a sign of a struggling business, but rather the changing of an ideology in the healthcare industry:
The goal now is to keep people as healthy as possible, not just treat sick people.
“When you look at how hospitals have been paid historically, basically patients were sick and they needed some kind of procedure,” said Beebe CEO Jeffrey Fried. “We never got paid to keep people healthy and out of the hospital.
“It’s the most exciting thing, to keep people healthy.”
Dr. Kara Odom Walker, secretary of the Division of Health and Social Services, applauded the move and praised Beebe’s executives for thinking about the needs of their patients.
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