VMH hosts visiting physicians from Romania and Moldova; April was positive financial month

by Brianne Eilers
 
The month of April ended on a positive financial note for Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH), with a net income of $49,825. While acute patient days were down from April of last year, as well as last year-to-date, skilled days were up, as were deliveries, surgeries, outpatient lab, outpatient MRI and outpatient physical therapy.
VMH Administrator Mike Myers explained that inpatient revenue, year-to-date, is close to six percent under budget, and outpatient revenue is one percent under budget, leaving gross patient revenue three percent under budget. “What has created our bottom line is that our expenses are under budget,” Myers noted. Total expenses were 3.3% under budget for the month. Last year, VMH decided to enact a wage freeze, which accounts for 2.6%, while the remaining 0.7% is due to staff diligence in controlling expenses.
Year-to-date, VMH has a two-percent profit margin, which is the facility's goal for monthly profit margin. Days of revenue in accounts receivable is at 77.5, and the hospital is nearly at $1.7 million in cash reserves. “That is what we live on in bad months to fund equipment,” Myers stated.
In other matters, VMH is working on a project to replace the flooring and do some repair work on the walls in the operating room. Myers noted that it has been 10 years, and there are some tears in the flooring. “In the operating room you want to have a continuous floor with no breaks in it,” he added. The main issue with the project will be how fast the work can be done, and Myers further explained that if the operating room were down, the hospital wouldn’t be able to provide OB services.
Another project VMH is looking at is moving the birthing tub into a bigger room. Myers stated that there could be a possibility of having the OB project done before the operating room is down, which would eliminate that inconvenience.
VMH hosted representatives from Moldova and Romania, who were all physicians. Myers explained that the visiting physicians come from 800-bed hospitals, and “couldn’t believe a 25-bed hospital could be financially viable.” The representatives received a tour of the VMH facilities, and Myers spoke to them via translators. The representatives were able to ask questions on rural healthcare and see how smaller hospitals work. Myers noted that the doctors explained that in their healthcare systems, the physicians ride in the ambulances when they go out, and seemed impressed that the VMH ambulance was large enough to be able to stand in.
VMH will be working on its Capital Budget request. “We will continue to be prudent in expenditures,” Myers said. He also noted that the department heads updated the Board of Directors on where VMH is at with their balanced scorecard, flu vaccines given last year, volunteer hours and different quality improvement projects, and how all of that has improved customer satisfaction. They also discussed inpatient falls and how the hospital has had heavier patient loads.
Myers also touched on the fact that the medical staff requested that the hospital look at its equipment for bariatric patients, as more and more patients are over 300 pounds, and moving them can be an issue. VMH will be looking at making sure there is money in the budget for adequate chairs and lift assist equipment for that.
The Foundation Golf tournament is coming up. VMH will also be looking at its health insurance renewal status. Myers explained that the projected increase is around 30%, which would put them at $1.7 million/year for healthcare expenses. The hospital is looking at what they can do to absorb that cost and how to curb some of the costs. “Some things we can’t,” Myers said. “There will always be catastrophic illnesses, but it is an alarming trend to say the least.” Myers also noted that it is also indicative of the situation that Americans are facing with rising costs of health insurance premiums.