St. Luke’s Medical Center in Phoenix will be closing its doors permanently on Sunday, Nov. 24.
Hospital officials claim the closure is based on a declining number of patients.
The hospital, located at 18th Street and Van Buren, has been open for over one hundred years.
In a letter to the community, the hospital stated:
“Despite our best efforts and substantial investment in St. Luke’s, patient demand has stayed extremely low and our facility remains significantly underutilized.
Less than 4 percent of local residents receive inpatient discharges at St. Luke’s. On any given day, St. Luke’s has 70 patients in the hospital out of a total capacity of 219.
To put it another way, each night, two out of three hospital beds are empty at St. Luke’s. Over the past two years, St. Luke’s occupancy rate has remained below 40 percent, and emergency department visits have decreased by 16 percent.”
The hospital says it’s clear that members of the community have decided to go to other health care facilities for their medical needs.
“When hospital volumes decrease below critical levels, our ability to provide safe, high-quality care could be compromised,” the hospital statement continued.
The hospital offered other options for patients to obtain care.
“Patients continue to have access to excellent and high-quality care at other Steward Hospitals – Mountain Vista Medical Center, Tempe St. Luke’s, and our newly reopened Florence Hospital – where we will continue to grow our service lines and physician practices. Additionally, our Behavioral Health Center, the freestanding hospital on the St. Luke’s campus, will remain open and continue to operate as normal. ”
Patient Care Specialists from Steward Health Care have begun contacting St. Luke’s patients to transition those with scheduled procedures and ongoing treatments to another hospital.
Specialists will also help to facilitate requests about medical records and will make sure patients continue to receive the medical care and services they need, without interruption.
St. Luke’s will stop taking ambulances and admissions in the Emergency Department as of November 23 at 1:01 a.m.
St. Luke’s says it will transfer or discharge any patients remaining at the hospital by November 24, 2019 to Tempe St. Luke’s or to Mountain Vista Medical Center.
Medical Records
Patients can request their medical records by calling 480-784-5567 during normal business hours. Additional information is available at www.tempestlukeshospital.org/medical-records.
Other Questions
For other questions and additional information, the Patient Information Hotline is 480-784-5510 during normal business hours. The website is: www.stlukesmedcenter.org.
Other Steward Hospitals in the Phoenix area:
Tempe St. Luke’s Medical Center
1500 S Mill Ave.
Tempe, AZ 85281
(480) 784-5500
www.tempestlukeshospital.org
Mountain Vista Medical Center
1301 S Crismon Rd.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 358-6100
www.mvmedicalcenter.org
Florence Hospital
4545 N Hunt Hwy.
Florence, AZ 85132
(520) 868-3333
Nearby Emergency Departments within 10-mile radius of St. Luke’s:
Abrazo Health Hospital Emergency Room
2000 W. Bethany Home Road
Phoenix, AZ 85015
(602) 249-0212
Banner University Medical Center Emergency Room
1111 E. McDowell Road
Phoenix, AZ 85006
(602) 839-2000
Phoenix Children’s Hospital Emergency Room
1919 E. Thomas Road
Phoenix, AZ 85016
(602) 933-1000
St. Joseph’s Hospital Emergency Room
350 W. Thomas Rd
Phoenix, AZ 85013
(602) 406-3000
Valleywise Health Medical Center Emergency Room
2601 E. Roosevelt Street
Phoenix, AZ 85008
(602) 344-5411
