Lankenau's Medical Staff President Jerome Santoro, M.D. , reflects the implication of this information, namely, that it remains to be decided whether any of Lankenau's services need to be moved at all. The ultimate responsibility for decisions, he notes, rests with the board of directors. Bryn Mawr's Medical Staff President James McCabe, M.D. , admits that the last thing Lankenau physicians want is to have their patients compromised. Gabuzda sees such physician movement as necessary to Bryn Mawr's survival. Without its cardiology program, the only way Bryn Mawr can sustain a critical mass of inpatient census is by absorbing physicians from Lankenau.
Cardiology is always a major contributor to an inpatient census.
Hanover envisions the need for 450 beds between the three Main Line Health System hospitals, using utilization rates from California. Reducing the number of beds by half or more seems likely to have some impact on physician capacity at the hospitals. Hanover does not see the bed reduction as tantamount to physician reduction, however, pointing out the growth of outpatient treatments in physician offices. No reduction of services need take place in physician offices, says Hanover. As to the question of how surgeons and other physicians reliant on hospital facilities would be affected by the cut in number of beds, Hanover responds that he fully expects physicians to use facilities at all campuses, that the plan will do nothing that jeopardizes physicians and that an effective practice structure can be retained.