Treasurer Kent Turner distributed copies of Cash In Bank Reports dated June 30 and August 16 at the August 16 Hospital Commission meeting. No checks were deposited during the month, nor were any recorded for the June meeting. The checking account balance remains at $17,019.01. The money market earned $430.15, bringing that balance to $1,447,481.53. The CD account received its quarterly deposit of $2,183.67, for a total of $435,780.98 for that account.
Turner said there was nothing new to report from the finance committee other than that “everybody’s working real hard.” The marketing committee has been working intensively on the logo, with many proposals being considered.”
The Brown House “is moving forward” and a roof will be put on soon. There was no CEO report because CEO Angie Shaw was not able to attend. “She just wanted to add that we are in a bit of a nursing crisis as almost all of the hospitals are,” commissioner Ty Burden said. “We’ve had several people leave recently, primarily for better paying jobs and for many different reasons.” Agency-provided nursing staff is extremely expensive, Burden said, more so than physician prices. The hospital is “intensely looking at how to get more nurses.”
CFO Bill Couch indicated that increasing pay for nurses was a goal and that rather than compete with rates for traveling nurses, bonuses for existing staff are being considered.
For the month of July, “our receipts exceeded our checks written.” It was acknowledged that, “that’s not a normal basis of accounting but that is money-in, money-out.” The cash balance at the end of July was $1,444,793 versus $1,266.699 for June, a decrease of 9.6 percent.
Couch said this is offset by the fact that the hospital is owed $690,00 from Medicare and Medicaid pending acceptance of an expense report from last year. Couch also estimates that the hospital is owed approximately $400,000 for the current fiscal year. “So, our cash position is eroding, but we do have an offset with the cost report receivable.”
July’s gross revenue was $809,000, compared to $892,000 in June, down nearly 8 percent, and stands at 77 percent of last year’s year-to-date figures. Burden pointed out that the line item that increased the most was supplies and other expenses, and asked why that was the case.
Couch responded that some of the increase may have been due to miscoding, that his way of notating checks and expenses may be different from how it was done in the past, and that he’d be glad to investigate it further.
Burden asked Couch to look at those items since the difference is around $100,000 compared to last month.
It was announced that Medhost consultant Roger Bowen’s contract had run out, and that another three-month contract was expected to be approved. Medhost offers financial and patient accounting tools for medical revenue management.
Burden commented that he was happy with all the staff who have been working exceptionally hard during these times. He said that the hospital vaccination rate is above 82 percent. He added that, with the addition of a few cases of the Covid virus among staff, the immunization rate is probably even higher than that.
The next Hospital meeting is Monday, Sept. 20, 6 p.m. at the Aud.