Veterans Memorial Hospital shows one of its best year-to-date bottom lines

by Brianne Eilers

The month of March was an exceptional month, revenue-wise, for Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) in Waukon. VMH Administrator Mike Myers noted that nearly all areas of patient volume were up, year-to-date. Deliveries were up 34.2%, Skilled Patient days were up 32.4%, Outpatient Physical Therapy was up 59.8%, and Emergency Room (ER) Visits were up 11.5%, for some examples.
Myers noted that total gross patient revenue was $2,173,000, and the hospital had budgeted $1.7 million. He also noted that expenses tracked along with revenue, coming in at $1,251,678 for the month. Myers also explained that the bottom line for the month is reflected as $136,492 because some of that revenue will be paid back to Medicare.
Year-to-date, VMH is showing a bottom line of $401,569, which translates into a 3.5% profit margin. “Year-to-date is probably the second most financially successful during my time here,” Myers noted. Days in accounts receivable are at 82.0 right now, but the hospital is working to lower that number for next month. Myers was not so optimistic about what the month of April will bring, financially. “We’ve had strong growth, and April’s kind of a lull,” Myers said. He did note that April has been a busy month for surgery.
In other matters, the local clinics continue to recruit physicians for the area. The hospital is also working on its capital budget. Press Ganey scores, which measure patient satisfaction, are showing improvement. Myers noted that Bioterrorism Funding is beginning to “dry up.” He noted that Allamakee County is looking to form coalitions with other counties to help with planning for that once the funding is gone. The hospital's Foundation is planning its annual golf outing. Board members also toured the remodeled OB unit.
Myers also mentioned some of the statistics that VMH has been keeping track of, and he noted that there is a committee that also monitors these statistics. During the month of March 2012, there were 115 outpatient ultrasounds, compared to 95 done last March. There were 326 ER visits this March, compared to 280 last year. Looking at admission statistics, there were 67 adult/pediatric admissions in March of 2012, versus 58 in March 2011, and there were 15 newborn admissions compared to just seven the previous March.