On this page you will find details about the financial challenges in healthcare and the facts around some of the recent changes at South County Health.

If you have any questions that are not answered on this page, please feel free to email us!

Navigating Healthcare Together

South County Health (SCH) is extremely sensitive to the community's concerns regarding our beloved community hospital.  As the main health system for Southern Rhode Island, we believe in maintaining open and honest communication with our community, and we want to share the facts behind SCH.  However, it is important to note that sharing any misleading or false narratives about SCH as facts in the community, such as a negative work environment or high turnover rates caused by the current Administration, only makes it harder to recruit physicians and other providers. It distracts us from the critical tasks of pursuing partnership opportunities and working towards financial sustainability. Most importantly it makes patients anxious and scared to receive care at the highest quality hospital in the state - when objectively there is no reason for them to be. 

Fact: Quality, Safety and Patient Experience 
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rated the Hospital 5-stars, one of only 2 hospitals in RI, and has an ‘A’ safety rating from Leapfrog, while maintaining the highest patient experience scores in RI. 79% of Hospital patients rated their experience at the Hospital a 9 or 10, whereas RI’s average is 69%. 

Fact: Financial Strength
With more than $90 MM in pooled assets on our balance sheet, SCH is not closing nor at risk of closing. In fact, SCH remains a high-performing health system under the current administration, who has carried out the Board's directives of significantly improved operating performance achieving financial results in FY24 of $3.7 MM more favorable than budget. According to unaudited figures, the Hospital lost approx. $2.4 MM on a budgeted loss of $6.1 MM in FY24.

Fact: Nursing and Provider/Physician Retention 
SCH’s frontline nursing retention is better than state and regional benchmarks, while physician retention is consistent with national averages. In our current healthcare environment, however, it is not uncommon for personnel changes to occur within an organization of our size and below are a few examples that occurred in 2017-2018 prior to the current administration's arrival:

Still, SCH has grown our total medical staff by approx. 35% since 2020, and we are excited to announce new providers in primary care and specialties have joined and more will be joining soon including:

Navigating Current Challenges in Healthcare

The Truth About Recent Organizational Changes and Misleading Information Being Circulated in the Community

Patient Stories