Houston Healthcare CEO says hospitals face big issues

WARNER ROBINS -- Hospitals face significant challenges and none is guaranteed survival, the chief executive officer of Houston Healthcare told community leaders Thursday.

At an Eggs and Issues breakfast, Houston Healthcare CEO Cary Martin said aging baby boomers and changes in how medical care is financed are among issues hospitals are facing.

"Health care as you knew it is gone," he said. "It's never going to be back. We don't have to gleefully go into the new era, but you either go or the train is going to run over you. You either adapt and overcome, or you die where you are."

Martin was the only speaker at the event held at the Museum of Aviation and sponsored by the Robins Regional Chamber of Commerce. He sat in front of the audience with April Bragg, president of the chamber, and answered her questions before also taking a few questions from the audience.

Houston Healthcare operates the Houston Medical Center and Perry Hospital.

Martin said even large hospitals in Atlanta are looking at merging in order to remain financially viable. Martin said people should not take for granted that their local hospital will always be there.

"If you are thinking it's going to still be here because it always has been or because we need a hospital, you are not going to have one," he said. "You are going to have more hospitals fail. You can't lose money on everything you do and make it up in volume. It is not possible."

Asked after the meeting what he thought about the future of Houston Healthcare, which has invested millions in expansion in recent years, Martin said, "There's nowhere I would rather be facing this challenge than at Houston Healthcare. I think we are more fortunate than most."

He said the system's buildings are in good shape, and it has a healthy reserve of money.

"Where I really feel the greatest concern is for (other hospitals) with facilities that are in disarray and have little or no reserves to help carry them through the storm," he said.

Martin said with baby boomers retiring, hospitals are losing many of them as longtime employees at a time when doctors and nurses are in short supply. Meanwhile, baby boomers are also entering the health care system as patients.

He said most of the major hospitals in Atlanta have been mailing invitations to nurses in Middle Georgia inviting them to job fairs.

"They used to never have a problem finding adequate nurses in metro Atlanta, but they are coming down here in order to find enough people to staff their areas," he said. "That's going to be a real challenge."

An audience member asked how Obamacare has impacted what the hospital spends on indigent care. Martin said it really hasn't changed, but he said that's mainly because Georgia did not expand Medicaid coverage, which was a key component of Obamacare.

To contact writer Wayne Crenshaw, call 256-9725.

This story was originally published October 15, 2015 at 2:13 PM with the headline "Houston Healthcare CEO says hospitals face big issues ."