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Despite bad economic conditions over the last year, jobs in healthcare have seemed immune to the problems other areas of employment have been faced with. In most states, this industry showed the most or only job growth each month that the  U.S. Labor Bureau Statistics reported. Now the recession may be catching up with medical jobs in some areas, according to new data.

The Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) released a survey they recently complied which showed that 80 percent of hospitals in the state are having money trouble. This has caused them to have to look into the possibility of slashing the services they provide, laying off workers or delaying large scale improvement projects they have planned.“Hospital balance sheets have gone from bad to catastrophic,” said Daniel Sisto, HANYS’ President. “The national and state economic crises and repeated governmental cuts to health care have devastated the most important services our communities need.”

This has resulted in the state’s hospitals, which received the second worst operating margin in the country last year, to see themselves fall even further behind. Now medical facilities in the area have reported an average decrease to minus 1 percent.

Over half (68 percent) of participating hospitals reported that they are currently scaling back their improvement projects. At this time, 51 percent are in thinking about the possibility of a hiring freeze. Another 30 percent said that they might cut existing services. Only 18 percent reported that they may do away with healthcare jobs. Out of the 80 percent that feels they need to take one measure or another, 75 percent said that they might have to find more than one solution to fix their problems.

“Hospitals are the economic anchors of the communities they serve. As the financial condition of hospitals continues to degrade, there will be very little choice than to eliminate jobs in order to protect core services—further weakening already fragile local economies and threatening the level of care and service the public demands,” said Sisto. “For years, New York hospitals have been victims of government cut after government cut. As a result, we have the second worst operating margins in the country, and have been placed in a position to fail as we try to navigate through the worst economy in generations.”

“The warning signs are clear,” Sisto went on to say. “And policymakers should heed the alarms. The ability to continue to provide critically needed health care services in communities across the state is very much in doubt. Even in the best of times, New York ’s non-profit hospitals must scratch and claw for every dollar, just to cover basic operating costs. In this economic climate, patients’ access to care and hospitals’ ability to deliver services face the threat of being eliminated.”