Harford County's chronic shortage of available nursing home beds presents an obvious opportunity for Upper Chesapeake Health System, the nonprofit group that is trying to eliminate 220 licensed beds at its two acute-care hospitals in the county.
A state agency projection of nursing home needs by the end of this century finds Harford with the greatest predicted shortfall: 154 long-term nursing beds, or one-fifth of Maryland's statewide need of 754 additional long-term nursing beds.
Demographic changes, coupled with the current shortage, make this demand apparent. Harford's over-65 population is expected grow by one-third in the next six years to 17,154 persons.
Existing Harford nursing homes have 684 licensed beds, and they can add up to 10 percent more under authorized waivers by the state Health Resources Planning Commission. But that still wouldn't be enough to meet the county's projected needs in the year 2000.
The commission's six-year projections of nursing home beds and proposals for new licensing procedures will come at public hearings this year. Regardless of the outcome, Harford health officials say that a sizable increase in beds is needed; the commission licenses new nursing homes based on a county's authorized allocation of beds.
While Upper Chesapeake's current plans are clouded by state regulatory decisions and financial considerations, the system does want to eliminate the 220 acute-care beds at Fallston General and cut 150 licensed beds at Harford Memorial, while building a new 150-bed hospital near Abingdon. Using those surplused beds for long-term nursing needs would be a logical conversion of resources.
But any decision by Upper Chesapeake will be determined by whether it gets state permission to build a new hospital near Abingdon, and to close down Fallston as a hospital. The commission has ruled that full-blown public hearings are needed, but Upper Chesapeake wants the new-facility issue separated from plans to shrink existing hospitals.
Officials say the health system would seriously consider nursing home beds for the Fallston facility, but only if it can get approval to build the new hospital. Alternatively, it may move maternity services to the Fallston site.
The complexities of these related decisions will certainly weigh on state regulators. But a plan to convert at least some of Upper Chesapeake's unneeded acute-care beds to nursing beds would seem to be in the best interests of everyone.