Smooth sailing for Polk Medical Center officials
♦ Hospital starting the fiscal year with uptick in patients, profits
Polk Medical Center is keeping right on track through the first few months of the current fiscal year, and numbers are expected to continue that trend for the time being according to administrators.
Floyd Healthcare Management vice president Matt Gorman said the numbers of patients who are utilizing services remain within the expectations they set previously, with some slight upticks to report as well.
“The patient census has been right in line with where we expect to be,” he said.
That’s for those staying overnight at the hospital, with an average census of around 22 people at a time within Polk Medical Center for extended care.
He added that some 2,800 patients were seen in the month of July at Polk Medical Center’s emergency room, which was up from the previous year as well.
Surgical cases were on the increase with 12 cases in July and 23 procedures conducted an uptick that goes in line with increasing numbers in the past months.
“We’re working closely with Dr. Lapointe along with a number of other strategies to hopefully be able to encourage some providers to come down and take advantage of our facility,” Gorman said. “We’re working an action plan right now.”
He hoped to share more with the board about how they can continue to grow surgical case numbers – which in the past years have dipped to no cases for a month at a time – and grow the program to maintain at least a average number over a fiscal year.
All these patients are also bringing in slightly increased revenue and thus more profit as well.
The hospital’s margins reported to the PMC, Inc. and Cedartown-Polk County Hospital Authority boards during their Aug. 28 meeting were at more than 26 percent compared to the 19 percent seen this time in 2017, and some 3 percent more than what was budgeted by administrators.
Clarice Cable, vice president of finance for Floyd Healthcare Management, explained to the board that their revenue was about 11 percent above what was expected in the budget ($10.7 million in gross revenue versus the $9 million expected) and profits were at $1.1 million for the start of the year compared to $715,149 that was expected.
Some of that is coming from a payer mix that is in a small amount of flux after the start of the fiscal year. Medicare and Medicaid payers went up to 57.4 percent of the revenue generated by the hospital, compared to the 55 percent that was expected.
The number of insured payers was also right on target at 22.4 percent, and the number of patients choosing to pay bills on their own was down from an expected 21.4 percent to 18.7 percent.
All of this means that the hospital is starting out the year on the right foot.
Hospital officials also took the time during the August meeting of the combined boards to celebrate a new arrival at the Polk Medical Center campus as a Floyd Primary Care physician.
Dr. Pamela Edwards joined the staff this past month, and Dr. Neil Gordon reported that she thus far is a welcome and happy addition to the staff at the hospital.
Gordon also sought from the board and received before they moved into a closed session permission for multiple members of the hospital staff to receive annual re-accreditation, which was unanimously approved.