Newman Regional Health Board of Trustees learned that the hospitals’ restructuring plan is working in the hospital’s favor during Wednesday afternoon’s monthly board meeting.
Holly French, the hospital’s chief executive officer, told board members that the average daily census of the hospital is up slightly at 47.6 and bad debt expenses also was down.
“That is our normal trend I just didn’t expect to see it this year with the economy the way it is,” French said.
French said the net income for the month was $112,000 and there was a cash increase of $838,000. The hospital had expected a $861,795-cash decrease for the month.
In the fiscal update, French said there has been an improvement in days accounts are in accounts receivable. There is a shorter turnaround time from discharge to final billing, French said. French thanked the physicians for that effort.
“We’re really seeing a difference,” she said.
While cash is on the increase for the hospital, the financial report reflected some negatives as well. Inpatient revenues due to decreased patient days were below the budgeted amount by $951,312 and outpatient revenues were under budget by $112,372.
Don Bailey, chairman of the hospital’s finance committee, talked briefly about the possibility of forming Public Building Commission, which would save the hospital $300,000 a year in interest. He thanked Lyon County Commissioners, who must approve the move, for their time exploring the move. Later in the meeting, the board voted to unanimously support the concept.
Bailey also offered up some numbers to the board. He said for the year of 2008 of every dollar billed up front, 46 percent were in contractual, which means it was discounted by Medicare, Medicaid or other insurance companies.
“We’re looking at 54 cents of that to operate on for every dollar (billed),” Bailey said.
In addition, the hospital had $2 million in charity care and another $2 million in bad debts.
“We have a challenge to start with on everything,” he said.
In other matters, the board received the audit report from John Wendling of Wendling Noe & Johnson.
Findings include:
* The hospital’s net assets decreased by $1,687,694 or 4.5 percent in 2008 as compared to an increase of $820,137 or 2.2 percent in 2007.
* The hospital reported an operating loss of $1,355,341 in 2008. This was a decrease of $2,247,610 operating income of $892,269 reported in 2007.
* The audit report stated “the combined financial statements referred to...present fairly, in all material respects, the combined financial position of Newman Memorial County Hospital ... as of Dec. 31, 2008, and 2007 and the combined results of its operations, changes in its net assets and its cash flows for the years then ended...”
jcook66801 (anonymous) says...
What has Newman done with its emergency room? I've heard from some and have experienced myself a poor level of service from the ER. Has anything been done to improve it?
April 22, 2009 at 5:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hottopics (anonymous) says...
Same here but not every time, just the majority of it. People sitting in there for 7 hours waiting is ridiculous, I don't care how simple or complex the concerns.
I would hate to see the polls taken on this hospital.
Everyone without insurance kiss their credit goodbye if they step into Newmans.
April 22, 2009 at 7:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dml (anonymous) says...
It took them 3 hours to give my mom 6 staples and a tetanus shot.
April 22, 2009 at 9:09 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
CRAZE (anonymous) says...
maybe you all should become physicians and nurses so you can work in the ER and see what it is all about. See how fast you can work the traumas coming in. You get everyone in and out in an hour. See if you can make it happen. Quit complaining and go to school and make it happen.
April 23, 2009 at 7:29 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
CRAZE
What if people have legitimate concerns as to how the ER is run but they just get told "Hey if you don't like it, go to school and do it yourself!"? Then the ER would never have to try to improve. They could just tell anyone that has a legitimate concern to "Shut up and go back to school!"
I'm going to try that at work. When someone asks me to fix a problem with the equipment they're working on I'm just going to tell them "If you can't fix it yourself you just need to shut up!" That sounds very liberating but for conscience sake I will just continue to listen to critics and try to use their critiques to improve my job performance.
April 23, 2009 at 9:31 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
slvrnblck (anonymous) says...
If you took a poll at any hospital and asked them to rate the service on their different floors the ER would almost always come up last. ER's have no choice but to take the most serious patients as they come in so the waiting time for "minor" things is greater. Plus, people are typically in a panic when they enter an ER. They think that their injury is the most important injury and when they don't get their demands met, they view it as bad service. Normally it is just bad timing.
April 23, 2009 at 2:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )