Construction wrapping up
Profits at hospital remain above budget expectations for 2017
Progress continues on a construction project at Polk Medical Center to expand the therapy gym at the hospital for inpatient care, and the second phase of the project will soon be forthcoming according to administrator Matt Gorman.
Gorman said the project is getting into its final stages and should be finished up this month at the recent meeting of the Cedartown-Polk County Hospital Authority meeting, this time held at Polk Medical Center.
He said that it’s around 75 percent complete with a target movein date during the week of Valentine’s day, and once it’s done the “intention is to shift focus to the west wing activities room.”
“That project should only take a few weeks to complete,” Gorman said.
Gorman said an open house is also being planned to show off “the capabilities of that new space” for the gym once it is done as well.
Brassfield and Gorrie were chosen to complete the work on a bid of $246,000 during the hospital authority’s September ses- sion, and they are set to go to work before the end of the year on transforming the space.
Along with extending the space of the gym into surrounding offices once used by the hospital education team, it will include private areas for one on one auditory and speech therapy, occupational therapy area with appliances commonly used in the home, and office space for staff as well.
“By the end of the month of February, we should be getting close if not completely done with those two projects,” he said.
The gym renovations are allowing more people to use the space at the same time in a variety of therapy areas, and the activities space expansion will also allow for more classes and activities for swing bed patients to enjoy during their stays at the hospital.
Along the lines of improvements, the hospital via Floyd Healthcare Management hired a consulting team who over the next weeks will be going through the process of interviews with board members to discuss what they see for the future of the hospital as changes continue to be made.
They’ll also be working with administrators and staff to provide a full presentation of their ideas for futher improvements at Polk Medical Center in the coming years, and will be presenting a report in the coming months, Gorman said.
The hospital thus far is staying within their expected positives of financial health, bringing in $3.3 million in profits thus far for the FY 2017 fiscal year compared to the budgeted $1.9 million at this point in the budget.
That comes off of $15 million in revenue and $12 million in expenses so far for the year after accounting for all of the bad debts, deductions and depreciation expenses.
Over the month of December, Polk Medical Center took in 44 swing bed patients, and another 66 for inpatient care. The hospital also treated some 2,376 patients in the emergency room for the month.
Those numbers are slightly up from the previous year and month, Gorman said, due to the decrease of patients seen during this time of year for the flu.
With warmer weather in January, he said those figures are likely to remain down for the start of the calendar year as well.
“There are some flu cases out there, but we have not had many, and Floyd hasn’t seen a tremendous uptick either,” he said.
Cases in the operating room were also down compared to November, but those numbers fluctuate from month to month depending on when cases for eye surgery are scheduled in bulk, usually increasing every other month when two surgery days are available.