Low skilled patient, surgery volumes in September bring VMH to break-even year-to-date numbers

by Brianne Eilers

September proved to be a disappointing month, financially, for Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) in Waukon, with the hospital showing a loss of $140,872. VMH Administrator Mike Myers attributed this loss to two main factors: skilled patient days were down for the month and surgeries were down for the month. “Those are two big revenue areas,” Myers said.
Acute patient days were up for the month, and that also means that the deductions from revenue were up. Other areas that were showed higher volumes for the month included outpatient lab, outpatient MRI, cardiac rehab and emergency room visits. Myers noted that with the nearly $141,000 loss and looking at year-to-date net income, VMH is sitting essentially at the “break even” point.
Myers pointed out that the number of days in Accounts Receivable has gone down to 85.6 and the hospital has increased its cash reserves to $1,928,000. “Expenses are in line with the budget,” Myers also noted.
In other matters, the VMH Board of Trustees discussed the Medicaid managed care program, which will take effect in Iowa January 1, 2016 and potentially impact VMH and the people who will have to sign up for services. Myers noted that approximately a half a million people will have to be signed up, as well as hospitals and doctors in about two and a half months. “It is no small undertaking,” he noted, adding that there are still many questions floating around out there about how the program will work and how it will affect everyone involved.
One big difference is that in the past, Medicaid paid the hospitals directly, but with the managed care in place that will change. Myers explained that the hospital has gotten contracts from the private companies who will be taking on the managed care, and the hospital is reviewing the contracts to present to the Board at its November meeting for approval. Myers said he also sent a video to the board members that was made by the Iowa Hospital Association to explain what is going to be happening with the Medicaid managed care.
VMH is also in the process of switching the company it uses for its electronic medical records (EMR) from Razor Insights to Athena Health, and the switch should be going into effect by the end of 2015. “We’re excited about that,” Myers said, adding, “Athena Health is a growing company with a good business model, and has been spoken of pretty well.”
Staff at VMH and other emergency personnel completed a disaster tabletop exercise in October, dealing with the scenario of a rail car carrying flammable liquid exploding. “I felt that Allamakee County Emergency Management director Chris Dahlstrom did a nice job walking us through that,” Myers said, adding that Dahlstrom gave all of the entities involved things to think about and work on in the event that such a disaster would ever happen. VMH staff also completed ALICE training in October, which involves the scenario of an active shooter in the hospital.
The Press Ganey results for VMH continue to be good. In the most recent quarter that had statistics available, VMH is in the 95th percentile of all hospitals in the Press Ganey database for patient satisfaction in the ER and in inpatient services. Final planning is going on for the Christmas Fantasy, which will be November 13-16.