VMH experiences record revenue in October

by Brianne Eilers

The month of October ended on a very strong financial note for Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) in Waukon. VMH Administrator Mike Myers said that October was a “record revenue month.”  Gross patient revenue came in at $2,295,040, well above the budgeted $1,941,112.
Deductions from revenue were also up, 6.6%, as Myers explained that Medicare and insurance can take away from that revenue. “The real amazing thing is that despite our revenues being up that much, our total expenses are 1.6% under budget. That’s pretty good,” Myers said. Areas that also experienced increases from last year, which Myers said was a “pretty strong year,” include acute patient days, deliveries, surgeries, outpatient physical therapy, outpatient MRI and ER visits.
VMH also has $2.7 million in cash reserves. The net income for October was $149,431, which translates to a 3.0% profit margin. Myers noted that October, November and December are typically some of the busier months at VMH.
Myers also discussed a little bit about some of the trends that VMH has been seeing with its patients. He noted that acute patient days are unpredictable, and a line graph illustrates that, but looking at other data compiled into line graphs in other areas like deliveries, skilled patient days, ER visits, MRI, ultrasounds, nuclear scans, physical therapy, and more, there is a clear showing that these areas have grown over the last 11 years, especially in the last few years.
“With all these things, from an outpatient standpoint, you look at these trends and they are pretty substantial,” Myers said, “There are other hospitals of comparable size that are nowhere near that growth in outpatient. It paints the picture of why we were successful last year and this year we are having a pretty good year as well.” Myers noted that if the trends continue and VMH continues to add patients and volumes, the hospital may have to, at some point in the future, address capacity issues.

In other matters, Myers traveled to Washington D.C., where he met with Iowa delegates. Myers said he did speak with the state’s representatives to the Senate and Congress to see where they felt the fiscal cliff was going, but he noted that “they had almost uniformly said they had no idea where things were at, at that time,” Myers said. He further said that in the discussions, the legislators were reminded that during this economy, health care is an area that has been adding jobs. Myers further explained that the law makers were reminded that if too many cuts are made to health care, it could become counter-productive, as jobs could be lost in the health care sector.
Myers and Dr. McMullen attended a Press Ganey awards ceremony, in which VMH received its third Press Ganey Award for Emergency Room (ER) patient satisfaction. Myers said that Elkader also received an award for its ER services. Those in attendance also shared ideas on improving customer service in their facilities. “You can equate customer service as a part of the reason in the growth of our volume,” Myers said, adding, “We’ve said you come here to get cared for, and that’s what we do.”
VMH is still waiting to hear on a final bid on the room remodeling project, and possibly also some remodeling to the physical therapy department as well. The Christmas Fantasy was “a success,” with an estimated gross revenue of over $20,000. “Support was phenomenal,” Myers said.