The 2007 financial picture at Texas County Memorial Hospital is shaping up for another strong year, hospital board members heard last week at their monthly meeting.
Financial statements for October 2007 showed a positive bottom line of $95,745, bringing the year-to-date revenues after expenses balance to $471,215.
Wes Murray, chief executive officer at TCMH, attributes the 2007 numbers to several factors.
“Business is strong for us right now,” Murray said. “Our community is supporting our local physicians and our hospital.”
Every TCMH clinic had a busy month during October that Murray attributed to hospital-employed physicians with “an unmatched work ethic.”
“The group dynamics of our current medical staff are complementary to each other,” Murray said. “The hospital’s administration and board feel strong support from the medical staff for the direction we are headed.”
Additionally supporting the hospital’s bottom line are decreased hospital expenses in many departments.
“Managing expenses plays a huge role in our bottom line,” Murray explained. He noted that the proper management of the length of stays for hospital inpatients also keeps hospital expenses down.
“Our employees have shown their own commitment to the hospital by trying to manage their own costs,” Murray said.
Financial data for 2007 shows continued increased growth in out patient services from departments like radiology, laboratory and the emergency room – areas of the hospital that will be expanded with a planned 38,000 square foot addition to the hospital.
Murray believes the hospital’s financial numbers point to the fact that the expansion project “is not only due but overdue.”
“Every positive month, every positive quarter and every positive year help solidify the need to grow areas of our hospital that cannot meet the healthcare needs of our community,” Murray said. “If our community wants to support our physicians and our hospital, our hospital’s board, administration and medical staff want our community to have access to the latest and greatest in medical care.”
Murray pointed out that TCMH has a trend of five very good years.
“With continued community support, I believe this trend can continue,” Murray said.
He admitted some “anxious” feelings about the cost of the proposed expansion.
“It’s realistic that we may not always have good years, and we can’t panic if that does happen,” he said. “However, the continued support of the community, our medical staff and our employees will help the hospital’s bottom line and assist the administration and board in continuing to grow this hospital for the betterment of the community.”
In other financial news, the board unanimously passed the 2008 capital budget of $727,618. Planned capital purchases for 2008 include another new ambulance totaling $66,705, two new scopes and a new sterilizer for the surgery department ($93,400), blood gas machine for the cardiopulmonary department ($38,000) and the computer software, hardware, server and training for electronic medical records for the emergency department ($190,700).
Linda Pamperien, chief financial officer, presented the capital budget request. According to Pamperien, the 2008 capital budget is the largest to date for the county hospital.
“We are going to try to hold off on budgeting for some new capital purchases until the new addition is built,” Pamperien said.
Also in financial information given at the meeting, Murray presented a report to the board showing that since 2004 TCMH has received $533,905 in grant funding. A large portion of that amount – $411,200.00 – came from the Missouri Foundation for Health to fund the hospital’s Osteoporosis Project and the Non-Emergent Transportation Project.
Most recently, the TCMH Healthcare Foundation received $15,150 from MFH for a grant to help with strategic planning, organization and training of the healthcare foundation.
“We’ve received more than half a million dollars in just three years,” Murray said. “That’s commendable.”
Building Project: Preliminary blueprint drawings for the hospital’s proposed expansion were available for board members to review. The plans are the results of hours of time the architects have spent in interviewing the various departments that will be moved into the expansion.
“The plans are starting to take shape, and they are becoming more and more impressive,” Murray said.
Murray explained that the meetings between the architects and the departments are ongoing with changes being made to the blueprints throughout the process.
“Our staff is able to tweak things exactly where they want,” Murray said. “They have the opportunity to reconfigure internal space and adjust the flow of the departments as the blueprints are designed.”
HMN Architects Inc. of Springfield, the architectural firm designing the expansion, will start to develop 3-D images of the project, both inside and outside, in the upcoming weeks.
“I think it’s great that the physicians and employees are involved in designing their departments,” Jane Kirkwood, hospital board member, said. “It helps to create support for the project when everyone has input.”
Murray explained that the new medical surgical floor design will actually have 24 private rooms rather than the initially proposed 20.
“HMN took the room specs from the new Carthage hospital design and replicated it for our medical surgical floor,” Murray said.
Doretta Todd-Willis, director of nursing at TCMH, and a group of nurse managers from the hospital toured those under construction, including McCune Brooks Hospital in Carthage. Todd-Willis and the other nurses wanted the same patient room floor plan from the new Carthage hospital for TCMH. HMN is also the architect for McCune Brooks Hospital.
The newly designed floor includes a large storage area, a consultation room, an office for the social worker, an activities room and a floor plan that is designed for efficiency and better flow for patient care.
“The rooms will be a dream,” Todd-Willis said.
In other business, Murray reported that the TCMH office annex work is taking shape with plans to be complete in early 2008. The equipment for the sleep lab has been purchased.
The family nurse practitioner position for the TCMH Family Clinic has been filled. Kim Kemnizter will complete employee orientation in December. She grew up in Salem and lives in the Montauk area.
“We believe Kim will be a great fit with Dr. Wright and Dr. Rasmussen,” Murray said. “All of the clinic staff is very excited for her to begin working with them.”
Present at the meeting were Murray, Pamperien, Todd-Willis; Joleen Senter Durham, director of public relations; Dr. Charles Mueller, chief of staff; Dr. John Duff, CoxHealth representative; and board members Kirkwood, Janet Wiseman, Omanez Fockler and Larry Southern.
Board member Mark Forbes was absent.
Due to the Christmas holiday, the December hospital board meeting has been changed to noon Dec. 18 in the downstairs meeting room of the hospital.