Veterans Memorial Hospital starts new year off with "solid" January

by Brianne Eilers
 
The Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Board of Trustees met Tuesday, February 21. New board member Kevin Hanson was introduced to the staff in leadership capacity at VMH.
The month of January proved to be a good month financially for VMH. Skilled patient days were up 26.8% year-to-date compared to last year at the same time, and deliveries were up 24.2%. Nearly all outpatient services were up as well, including surgeries, outpatient lab and outpatient radiology. Emergency room visits were also up 10.8%. Gross patient revenue came in at $2,099,148, which is 8.4% over what had been budgeted.
VMH Administrator Mike Myers pointed out that expenses also tracked along with the revenue, and total expenses were up 4.1% from this time last year. In the end, VMH showed a profit of $83,323 for the month of January 2012, translating to a 5.8% operating margin, and $214,993 year-to-date, which translates to a 2.5% operating margin.
The number of days in accounts receivable was up to 90.4, but Myers explained that this was due to a change over in billing with Medicare. The cash reserves are also down slightly to $2,021,000, which is due to the fact that VMH paid for its elevator project and the remodeled conference room.
“All in all, it’s been a pretty solid financial picture,” Myers noted. He also thought that February should be a good financial month as well, though maybe not a strong as January.
In other matters, the ultrasound and CT scan departments have been busy at VMH. Sleep studies are also up 100%, with 48 compared to 24 last year. There was also an increase in physical therapy, which ended up being up 64.9% in January. Myers noted that there was an increase in swing bed days, not necessarily in admissions, but that patients are being kept longer.
The OB department at VMH has also continued to see growth as well. “It used to be that there was a week or two weeks that OB was closed, but we don’t see that anymore,” Myers noted. Also in looking at some of the statistics, Myers pointed out that VMH has been seeing more patients from the New Albin and Monona areas. The Live Healthy Iowa program is in swing, and VMH has 84 participants. “Allamakee  County is the third highest in the state for percent of participation,” Myers noted.
VMH has done some remodeling in a few areas of the hospital. New carpet was put in at Healthy Lifestyles, and in the OB unit they have been installing new outlets and painting in some of the rooms. VMH is looking to do some remodeling of the nurses’ station, and will be getting figures for that, as well.
The Board also heard some of the directions that VMH would like to move within its strategic planning. Myers explained that with the plan the hospital has pillars, which are areas that support what VMH does as an organization and help to organize the planning. Some of the different pillars are financial planning, “WOW” customer service, quality, and community. Myers also talked a bit about market share, explaining that when VMH spends money on advertising in other areas, they want to see what it does to their volumes. “Where it gets difficult is that it’s harder to track, because we can’t see the patient volume statistics for the other hospitals in the area,” Myers said.
VMH has also gotten the results for its Retention Report, and VMH has a rate around six percent, which Myers noted is well below the state average of 10%. He further stated that VMH has stayed around five to seven percent consistently. “And we’re pleased with that,” Myers noted.