Patients still experiencing delays at Holy Cross
Holy Cross Medical Center is entering the second quarter of the year in relatively solid financial shape, but the pandemic’s impacts on the state’s broader healthcare system continue to cause delays for Holy Cross patients who need to be transferred elsewhere for higher levels of care.
“It’s better, but not quite where it should be at,” said Dr. Cipry Jaramillo, speaking after she delivered her Chief of Staff report at last month’s remotely-held regular meeting of the Taos Health Systems board of directors.
“For example, this week, I’ve had a patient that’s awaiting transfer to the Heart Hospital that’s been here two days now,” Jaramillo said. “They don’t have a bed. Even getting [trauma patients] to UNM has been somewhat challenging. From what I hear from the ER docs, that’s much better than we were a couple of months ago.”
Bill Patten, the hospital’s CEO, addressed the issue, telling the board that a lack of ground transport is also contributing to the delays.
“The transfers has been a function of not being able to get EMS — not just ours, but any EMS, Superior [Ambulance], or whoever,” Patten said. “So many of our transfers that historically have been done by ground are now being done by air. And it’s not just us, I’ve been on calls recently across the state; people are struggling with transportation issues.”
Patten is departing the top leadership position at Holy Cross in six months, the hospital’s marketing department announced last month. The board of directors discussed his imminent departure in a closed session and began, behind closed doors, mapping out the process for identifying candidates to fill the position.
Patten also said the hospital, which is “not seeing a lot in the way of COVID volumes, whether inpatient or outpatient,” is preparing to lift pandemic visitor restrictions soon.
We’ve prepared the signage [and] we’re going to be opening up the front doors again,” Patten said, adding that the hospital is awaiting new guidance from the state before lifting the restrictions.
With rural hospitals having faced unprecedented challenges even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced medical centers like Holy Cross to periodically suspend surgeries — a major driver of revenue at any hospital — last month’s financial report sounded a relatively bright note.
“We did have a slight operating loss of $3,917, but we were budgeted to have an operating loss of $348,000,” interim Chief Financial Officer Connie Prewitt said in her report. “So compared to budget, we did much better than what we were forecasting.”
The publicly-funded nonprofit hospital had 76 days cash on hand on average in March, according to the report, a decrease of 11 days cash on hand from the same time last year. Cash on hand is a measure of the general health of the hospital, and an indication that it is able to make payroll and pay its bills.
“Remember we still have $2.6 million that’s owed back to Medicare,” Prewitt said. “And after we pay that Medicare, that would be 65 days of cash. So this is a little bit concerning.”
Prewitt noted that, “Part of this is due to a backlog that we have in [accounts receivable], so if we get that caught up we should see our days of cash pop back up accordingly,” adding that recent IT system failures contributed to the billing backlog.
Patten and board President Chris Stagg did not respond to messages left seeking more information regarding the cause and scope of the hospital’s IT problems.
“Anytime that IT systems are down, our remote billers and coders cannot work,” Prewitt said. “And anytime a claim goes out for your insurance companies, it’s going to be 30 to 60 days before you get payment.”