Our Challenges
- Over the past three years Hamilton has experienced an unprecedented growth in both patients and visits (medical and dental). Although we have expanded our hours of operation, the number of patients has exceeded current facility capacity creating operational inefficiencies.
- Hamilton’s two main buildings are old and costly to maintain and repair.
- As a result of the passage of Health Care Reform, by 2014 most of Greater Harrisburg residents will be insured, with the majority of existing uninsured residents being covered by Medicaid or have some type of subsidized insurance. However, being insured will not guarantee improved access to care. This will create a need for expanded service capacity.
- Hamilton partners with Harrisburg Area Community College as well as other educational facilities to provide training opportunities for medical, nursing and allied health students (medical and dental). While the need for clinical training sites is growing, our current facilities do not provide adequate space to expand these learning opportunities.
- Hershey Medical Center has an interest in partnering with Hamilton to address health disparity issues. However the lack of space prohibits us from being able to fully participate in research studies with Hershey or other research institutions.
- The misuse/overuse of Pinnacle’s emergency room for non-acute care drives up medical costs and consumes valuable emergency room space. The lack of space inhibits Hamilton from partnering with Pinnacle to eliminate or reduce this trend.
- Hamilton’s patients’ present with complex problems reflective of Dauphin County demographics
- It has the second largest minority population in Pennsylvania, creating cultural and language barriers for private sector health providers.
- It ranks among the five worst counties in PA for HIV/AIDS, STDs and low birth weight.
- Chronic disease is the leading cause of death.
Although Hamilton offers interpreting services and programs to address these issues, The lack of adequate space limits our ability to effectively manage these problems.
- Rising malpractice premiums have caused physicians to alter their practices, retire early or leave the area. Obstetrics is one of the specialties that has been severely affected by this trend, creating a shortage of OB/GYN services in the region. This has not effected Hamilton’s ability to recruit and retain providers because our malpractice insurance is covered by the federal government and state and federal loan repayment programs are available to our providers.
- Increasing pharmaceutical costs has caused many low income patients to forgo taking their prescribed medications. Hamilton works to provide low to no cost medications to its patients helping to maximize patient – physician interaction.
