Veterans Memorial Hospital makes its way through slower November

by Brianne Eilers

The Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Board of Trustees met for its annual joint meeting with the hospital's medical staff. VMH Administrator Mike Myers described November as a “less than stellar month,” financially. While acute and skilled patient days were both slightly up, 2.3% and 0.7 %, respectively, most areas were either flat or down, with the exception of the areas of outpatient lab, outpatient radiology and outpatient physical therapy.
The number of days in accounts receivable are at 74.3, and coming down. VMH has $2,730,000 in cash reserves. The hospital ended the month of November with a loss of $116,321. Year-to-date, the hospital is showing a profit of $98,333. “This is a reality check to illustrate that while we strung together a few good months, all it takes is one really bad one to put us back down to where we were,” Myers noted.
He also said that December looks to be a better month. “We’re back to being like a ‘big city’ hospital where we are holding patients in the ER until we can get them in a bed on the floor,” he explained.
The room remodeling project is almost finished. There is a little bit of painting work left to do. In other projects, a new roof has been installed over the foyer and locker rooms by the emergency room to stop a problem with water leaking in. The hospital will also be evaluating electronic medical records and will begin meeting with vendors and looking at what they need to do to move forward on that project.
VMH will also enter into a new lease agreement for a CT scanner in early January. A mobile unit will be brought in during the installation process.
Myers also discussed healthcare budgeting at the federal level. The Senate has passed a three-month stop gap measure and going forward there is a three-year “deal” ahead, regarding the 20% or more physician payment reduction for Medicare pay. “This still is an interesting time for hospitals, as the budgets come up,” he commented, adding that some of the things that have been proposed would not be good for Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) like VMH, including one proposal that would “pretty much gut the Critical Access program.” Myers said he will continue to monitor the situation.
The meeting also involved credentialing and re-appointment of the physicians at the hospital.