The Laramie County Commissioners voted unanimously last night, Tuesday, July 3rd, to allow the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center to close the Transitional Care Unit (TCU).
In today’s world, more individuals are going home for further medical care and the TCU does not play the same role as it has in healthcare system. This was assessed in great detail during the County Commissioner meeting. Further barriers to sustaining this service relates to CRMC not being able to recoup their costs. Reimbursements, including that of Medicare, are not fiscally contributing at the rate needed for the TCU to be sustainable. In fact, TCUs are typically not a function of regional hospitals due to this. Recovery and rehabilitation of patients is occurring more frequently at home; therefore, Home Care Services will remain a more popular solution to meet patient needs even spite the TCU closure. The Cheyenne Regional Home Care Services and Transitions Across the Community Team (TACT) are a robust group of healthcare professionals with the skills and capacity to care for these individuals. They focus on Laramie, Platte and Goshen Counties.
If the County Commissioners chose to keep the TCU operative, they would have to compete with comparable skilled nursing facilities in the area. This would cause for more competition and less collaboration for providing supreme healthcare services to residents. The concern was that if this occurred, the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center would have difficulty with accommodating new services needed in the community, and would be less adaptive to meeting these needs.
“The unit’s projected loss in 2019 is about $1.5 million. The medical center’s operating income was $15.4 million at the end of fiscal year 2018, according to a recent audit, up from $11.9 million at the end of 2017.” addressed by the Wyoming Tribune Eagle Article, “County lets CRMC Close Transitional Care Unit.”
