That crashing sound you just heard was UPMC's argument to close its latest hospital falling to pieces on Braddock Avenue.

Executives of the health-care system have maintained that they decided to shut down UPMC Braddock not because it was losing money but because it was underutilized. Yet a report Saturday by Post-Gazette staff writer Steve Twedt showed that recent utilization numbers for the hospital were higher than six others in Allegheny County.

Based on UPMC's own reports, Braddock's occupancy rate in 2007-08 was 72.4 percent -- better than UPMC Mercy, West Penn, Ohio Valley, Heritage Valley in Sewickley, Alle-Kiski and West Penn Forbes Regional. In fact, Braddock's occupancy rate, as reported in data collected by the state Department of Health, was only a hair below the county average, 73.7 percent.

UPMC cautions, however, that Braddock's use rates include behavioral health beds for drug and alcohol, sober living and detoxification programs. The health system says a better index of a hospital's health is medical/surgical utilization.

Toward that point, UPMC has been saying since it announced the closing last month that four out of five Braddock-area residents get their medical/surgical care at facilities other than UPMC Braddock. For that calculation it defines the Braddock community as six ZIP codes surrounding the hospital: 15035, 15104, 15112, 15120, 15145 and 15148.

That strikes us as a convenient and arbitrary zone that can be designed to support a multitude of arguments. It also presupposes that residents of a community are fed by their very geography into the hospital nearest their home.

For late-night stitches in the emergency room? Maybe. For cancer treatment or to deliver a baby. No way. And UPMC knows better.

What's become more evident, in the aftermath of UPMC's Braddock decision, is that the successful health-care giant is having a hard time defending its retreat from a hard-bitten community that depended on it for more things than medical care.

Profit-driven companies make calculated choices to protect the bottom line. Nonprofit institutions, which receive tax exemptions in exchange for services to the community, are bound by a higher call.

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