Portland
The shuttered Physician’s Hospital (formerly the Woodland
Park Hospital) will be turned into Oregon’s first
long-term care hospital. Vibra
Healthcare, which is based in Pennsylvania, plans to
offer approximately 80 beds for patients in need of weeks or
months of high-level care. The health care company avoids state
regulatory procedures by purchasing an existing hospital and
resuming services within 12 months. Officials at the Oregon
Association of Hospitals and Health Systems (OAHHS) plan to
seek state regulatory changes that would distinguish hospitals
that provide long-term care from more traditional acute-care
providers. “There is no specific designation for these
long-term care hospitals. It’s not fair for these
hospitals to work through the same regulations as more
traditional acute-care hospitals,” says OAHHS executive
vice president Gwen Dayton.
