How does a healthcare system and its service components know when it’s turned a corner (in the wrong direction) with respect to its finances? When it has hired an outside consultant to determine if it is solvent enough to continue to operate fully in its current state. 

The Minnesota-based Park Nicollet system has done just that. Hurt by slower than anticipated growth in its hospital and specialty clinic services, the organization and its cash-on-hand reserves worries investors and creditors. And that could mean more employee shedding and clinic closings, especially in those which provide a high degree of uncompensated care. One employee in this article expressed his concern out of the patients most affected by possible primary care clinic closures within the organization: “These are hard times — I can deal with that,” said one employee of Park Nicollet who requested anonymity for fear of being fired. “I just don’t want them to hurt patients and I don’t want them to make decisions based on conversations between management and a bank.”

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