The lagging economy has taken a toll on D.C.-area hospitals, forcing layoffs and cost-cutting measures, but a GW Hospital representative says the Foggy Bottom facility has remained stable.

GW Hospital officials have terminated fewer than 1 percent of the organization’s positions and the hospital has experienced an increase in market share over the past year, Hospital Communications Manager Heather Oldham said in an e-mail. The GW Hospital is operated under a joint agreement between the University and Universal Health Services, a for-profit hospital management company.

“We are not completely immune to today’s economic challenges,” Oldham said. “However, we seem to be faring well in spite of them.”

Other area hospitals have been hit by a combination of rising expenses and decreasing income, but Oldham attributed GW Hospital’s growth to an increase in both emergency department visits and surgical cases, as well as new technology and specialty surgery programs like gynecologic surgery and pain management.

While patient admissions in February 2009 were 5.6 percent lower than they were in February 2008, Oldham said the hospital has still seen an increase in patients – nearly 6 percent – over the last year. GW Hospital has the second-highest number of adult patient admissions in the District, she added.

“We are doing well and haven’t experienced the decreases that other hospitals have. Relative to the market, our volumes have actually increased,” Oldham said.

Other District hospitals have not fared as well as the GW facility, said Robert A. Malson, chief executive officer of the District of Columbia Hospital Association, a nonprofit organization that represents and advocates for area hospitals.

“It’s a very difficult situation. The economy is affecting us all,” he said.

Hospitals outside the Beltway are having trouble as well. Nearly 60 percent of Maryland’s 58 hospitals sustained overall losses totaling $466 million in the last three months of 2008, according to financial analysis by the Maryland Hospital Association.

Most losses stemmed from increases in interest rates, losses on returns and other cost increases related to expanding programs and developing new technology, according to an MHA news release.

Of the GW Hospital positions that were eliminated, many were organizational changes, Oldham said – though she declined to specify what jobs had been cut.

“We asked our department directors to look closely at our expenses and to identify ways to lower costs,” she said. “We have targeted one or two line items, such as reducing employee travel to conferences.”

No patient services have been cut for budgetary reasons, Oldham added.

Oldham did say that “anecdotally” she has heard of some patients choosing to postpone certain surgeries, but said that number was relatively insignificant.

Oldham said, “Some physicians have shared that they’ve seen patients delay elective surgeries, but we always encourage patients to make their health a top priority.”