Hospital ends calendar year ahead of game
By Brandy Nance
Originally published 01:58 p.m., January 24, 2008
Updated 01:58 p.m., January 24, 2008
Newman Regional Health finished out the year financially comfortable despite taking a hit in inpatient revenue in December.
The Newman Regional Health Board of Trustees met for its first meeting of 2008 Wednesday afternoon. Members learned that inpatient revenues came in at $372,557 over the budgeted loss. The loss was due to decreased patient days on medical, surgery and pediatrics and telemetry. Inpatient surgical cases also were down. The hospital budgeted for 107 cases in December. It only had 74.
While inpatient revenues came in at a loss, outpatient revenues came in with a positive $702,446 for December. The hospital based its budget on 208 outpatient surgical cases. It ended up with 306. Outpatient visits overall came in 353 over the budgeted cases.
There was more disappointing news in the operating loss, however. The operating loss for the month was $740,257. The year-to-date operating loss was $188,924. However, the hospital budgeted for a year-to-date loss of $885,371.
In other business, board members approved $35,200 for a capitol request. The request was to upgrade a waste management system for surgery. The equipment will increase the amount of surgical waste the operating room can handle. With the current system, canisters hold 18 liters of fluid.
In some surgical cases, however, the amount of fluids exceeds this and the containers have to be manually emptied and cleaned.
“It’s a mess for the nurses,” Holly French said.
The new system will not expose staff to surgical fluids. Fluids are automatically disposed of through a central docking station and containers are disinfected and safe for re-use. The new containers will hold up to 24 liters of fluid.