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December 28, 2020 Economic Forecast

CT hospitals will need to be resilient in 2021

Photo | Contributed Middlesex Health's flagship facility, Middlesex Hospital in Middletown.


Q&A talks to Vincent Capece Jr., president and CEO of Middlesex Health, about the 2021 outlook for the state’s hospitals.

How will COVID-19 impact Connecticut hospitals during the winter season? What do you predict will happen with the disease in the spring? Summer? Fall?

Over the past several months, many communities throughout the U.S. and throughout Connecticut have been experiencing a resurgence of the COVID virus. This has clearly resulted in an increase in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Many experts have predicted a second wave of COVID, which does appear to be developing. However, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to predict how this second wave will play out, in terms of its intensity or duration. I do believe that, as an industry, and as an organization, we have learned much from our experience in dealing with the COVID virus over the past eight months, As a result, we are well prepared to effectively address the challenges that a second wave of the virus may present.

You said in August that elective surgery volumes had returned to pre-pandemic levels. Is that still the case? What do you predict will happen in 2021?

Middlesex Hospital’s elective surgery volumes rebounded very quickly over the late spring and summer months to our pre-pandemic levels. We were continuing to see strong surgical volume into the fall. This same trend is being experienced at many hospitals in the state.

I suspect that part of the reason is because many patients elected to defer surgical procedures during the height of the pandemic due to fear of contracting the virus. However, I also believe that those fears lessened over the summer as the prevalence of the virus waned, and many people have become more comfortable with the thought of seeking care at a hospital.

Currently, we are expecting our elective surgical volume to remain strong throughout 2021. Our goal is to continue elective surgeries, even if we experience a COVID spike, unless we determine it is not safe to do so.

Many hospitals are grappling with financial struggles from the pandemic. How will hospitals deal with deficits in 2021?

Hospitals, and most businesses, in general, throughout the country have been negatively impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 virus.

For hospitals, it was a double whammy of lost revenue, due to the stoppage of elective surgeries, combined with the incurrence of higher expenses associated with taking care of very sick, resource-intensive COVID-19 patients. Thankfully, the federal government provided significant financial support to most hospitals through the Cares Act. Middlesex received almost $30 million this past year through this legislation.

The impact of the pandemic will continue to weigh on hospitals, as well as many other businesses for the foreseeable future. We believe our organization is well positioned to weather this storm, but there may be some hospitals that decide that joining a larger system is the only way to survive.

What are some long-term effects of the pandemic on the state’s healthcare system?

In my opinion, the impact of the pandemic has definitely weakened the balance sheets of the hospital industry in the state. The government financial assistance we received has certainly helped to temper the impact of the pandemic.

Whether this will have a long-term detrimental impact on the quality of care or the patient experience remains to be seen. Much will depend on the duration of the pandemic, and whether additional stimulus help will be provided by the federal and state governments.

Hospitals have a history of being resilient organizations, and we always put the needs of our patients front and center. That’s why I remain optimistic that our industry will ultimately recover from this horrible event and patients will not see a decline in the quality of their care or their overall experience.

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