GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Shriners hospitals, which have provided free care since before the Great Depression, are considering closing a quarter of their facilities as donations stagnate, costs increase and the charity's endowment shrivels.
The group's director says it's the only viable option.
Officials at the Florida-based organization say it is siphoning $1 million a day from its endowment to balance the budget for 22 hospitals in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Meanwhile, they say, that fund has fallen to $5 billion from
$8 billion in less than a year because of the sputtering stock market and a charitable-giving slump that has hurt philanthropies nationwide. The fund has been declining since 2001. The group will vote this summer on the closures.
"Unless we do something, the clock is ticking and within five to seven years we'll probably be out of the hospital business and not have any hospitals," Ralph Semb, chief executive officer of Shriners Hospitals for Children, told The Associated Press.
In cities where hospitals may close, supporters and hospital staff are scheduling fundraisers and posting online messages of support on social networking Web sites.
Widely known today for burn and orthopedic care for children, the Shriners Hospitals system opened in 1922 with a facility in Shreveport, La., that specialized in treating polio. By the 1960s, the group had hospitals nationwide and expanded its care to include spinal cord injury rehabilitation, cleft lip and palate care and medical research.
More than 1 million children have been treated at the hospitals, which were created by the fraternal organization of the same name whose members are known for wearing red fezzes and driving miniature cars in parades. The care is free to all.
Semb said this year's operating budget for the hospital system is $856 million. The budget has risen by $100 million in each of the past two years while donation levels remained static, he said.
Last month, the Shiners' board of trustees voted to close four of the group's eight research centers and lay off about 40 people at its administrative office.
At the organization's annual meeting July 6-8 in San Antonio, about 1,200 Shriners will vote whether to close hospitals in Shreveport; Erie, Pa.; Spokane, Wash.; Springfield, Mass.; and Greenville, S.C. Semb said they were chosen mainly because of too many vacant beds. Patients would be sent to other Shriners hospitals that specialize in their ailments.
The organization also will consider whether a hospital in Galveston -- closed temporarily after Hurricane Ike -- will remain shuttered.
Closing these hospitals is the only viable option, Semb said. Though members will also consider keeping all
22 facilities open or cutting the nationwide budget 30 percent, Semb contends that doing either would be a death knell to the organization. He said that to continue functioning as they do now with all the hospitals open, Shriners would have to increase the endowment to about $12 billion by 2014 -- unlikely, given the economy and a nationwide trend toward less large-sum charitable giving.
Getting the two-thirds majority needed to close the hospitals will not be easy, Semb said.
Patients and their families are vowing to rally at the annual meeting. And some Shiners who have spent years raising money and volunteering say they'll oppose the move. They've done it before: A plan to close hospitals in 2003 was quickly voted down despite warnings of financial problems.
RSS
Mobile
Daily Emails
Twitter
Facebook
