Texas County Memorial Hospital had a positive bottom line for the third straight month, board members heard at their monthly meeting last week.
December financials had $21,875 in excess revenues over expenses.
Wes Murray, chief executive officer at TCMH, said the numbers show the addition of Dr. Russell Huq to the medical staff in September. Huq, a family practice physician, was recruited to work for TCMH last February and began a full-time position at the TCMH Family Clinic in Licking.
Linda Pamperien, chief financial officer at TCMH, explained that inpatient revenue exceeded budgeted expectations for December – a first for 2009. Swing bed admissions — the hospital’s long-term care program — were also up for the month. Expenses remained below budgeted expectations.
Pamperien pointed out that in 2009 the hospital broke a record for babies delivered by the hospital’s obstetrics departments. The mark of 357 broke the previous record of 310 set in 2008.
The three months of positive numbers leaves the hospital’s year-to-date bottom line in the red at $860,969.
“These are unaudited numbers,” Pamperien explained. In March, a complete audit of the hospital’s 2009 financials will be done by BKD, LLC, a Springfield accounting firm, with a presentation to board members at the April meeting.
Pamperien noted that in a preliminary audit discussion with David Taylor, the lead auditor for the TCMH audit, financial losses in 2009 were a common theme among hospitals across the state.
“What does next year hold?” Murray asked board members. He explained that healthcare reform efforts continue to leave an unclear picture for hospitals. “Right now, everything is in the same state of flux it was in a year ago,” he said.
Murray expressed optimism about the hospital’s future.
“The addition of Dr. Huq has already made a difference, and we know that Dr. (John) Paulson and Dr. (Gretchen) Price will begin working here this year, too.”
Paulson, a family practice physician, will begin work at TCMH in July. Price, an internal medicine physician, will begin work at TCMH in September. Both will work at the TCMH Medical Complex in Houston.
TCMH is also working with another internal medicine physician that plans to start work in the spring. Details have not been finalized with the physician.
Murray reported that the TCMH clinic and ambulance base in Mountain Grove are progressing quickly. Most of the work on the project has moved indoors with the completion of the roof and interior concrete work.
“We are looking at a late March or early April date to open the Mountain Grove clinic,” Murray said.
Sheri Stofer, a physician assistant from Mountain Grove, will work full-time in the clinic when it opens. Dr. Michael Moore, a family practice physician, will work part-time in Mountain Grove with Stofer.
Moore has worked with TCMH in Houston since July 2008.
“Dr. Moore is a very good physician, and we are grateful for his willingness to work wherever he is needed,” Murray said.
Recruiting efforts for TCMH are ongoing. Joleen Senter Durham, director of physician recruiting, reported that she and Murray will meet this month with the family practice residents at the Cox Family Medicine Residency program.
Durham is also working with St. John’s to help them when physicians visit Houston to look at practice opportunities with that institution.
“I will provide hospital tours for the St. John’s physicians, and they will have an opportunity to meet our department managers one on one,” Durham said. “Even though these physicians will be employed by St. John’s, they will still work with our hospital and live in the area. It’s important that we make every effort to roll out the red carpet to them.”
Doretta Todd-Willis, chief nursing officer, reported that the addition of internal medicine physicians at the hospital has led to some additional training and departmental updates.
“We are going to make some updates to our intensive care unit,” Todd-Willis said, explaining that staff is receiving additional training, and mock patient codes simulating respiratory failure or cardiac arrest are being done regularly in the hospital to provide additional training and teamwork in critical patient situations.
“For the first time in a long time we are going to have internal medicine with critical care procedures practiced in our hospital,” Murray said. “We want to have our house in order when the new physicians get here.”
Murray presented a report to board members showing a breakdown of grant and loan funding received by the hospital since 2004. Grant funds total $756,818 over five years.
The Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) provided $411,220 of the total grant funding for the hospital. Primarily, MFH helped the hospital purchase a bone densitometer so TCMH patients could receive bone density testing and two non-emergency transportation vans to provide medically related transportation for area resident.
Smaller grants ranging from $1,390 to $86,500 have provided specialized pediatric equipment, department manager training and met other smaller equipment needs for the hospital.
The USDA has also figured largely in the success of TCMH projects, providing $1,056,005 in loans for electronic medical records in the TCMH clinics and for the clinic and ambulance base in Mountain Grove.
“We have received $1.8 million in loan and grant funds in the past few years – a remarkable number for facility of our size,” Murray said.
Present at the meeting were: Murray; Pamperien; Durham; Todd-Willis; and board members Omanez Fockler, Janet Wiseman, Jane Kirkwood, Mark Hampton and Mark Forbes.
The next meeting of the TCMH board of trustees is noon Tuesday, Feb. 23, in the downstairs meeting room of the hospital.