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DCHS asks community for support

‘Aggressive competitor’ funneling health care dollars away from Dickinson, hospital says

IRON MOUNTAIN — Fewer patients continues to create financial stress at Dickinson County Healthcare System, even as the hospital cuts expenses by reducing staff, according to a DCHS news release Friday.

The financial report for June 2018 showed DCHS had $8,861,222 in total operating revenue and expenses totaling $9,220,219 that resulted in a $358,996 loss in operating income. With non-operating revenue and expenses calculated in, June closed with a negative bottom line of $436,043.

June’s performance brought the year-to-date loss in operating income for 2018 to $3,600,890. After the calculation of non-operating revenue and expenses, the 2018 year-to-date bottom line through June is a negative $3,972,416.

The June financial report, reviewed by the hospital board Thursday, also indicated outpatient volumes year-to-date are down by 4 percent compared with 2017 and inpatient volumes are down 19.4 percent for the same period, according to the DCHS news release.

“There is an aggressive, direct competitor in our market and they are funneling health care dollars into other communities and away from DCHS,” the hospital stated in the release.

The hospital has reduced its labor force by about 10 percent, or 80 full-time equivalent employees, compared with June 2017.

“DCHS has always been committed to high-quality patient care — this remains our top priority, in spite of the lower volumes the hospital has experienced in 2018,” said John Schon, administrator-CEO.

“The annual impact of these staffing reductions equates to an estimated $4.5 million reduction in our hospital payroll. However, if our hospital patient utilization would have remained the same as 2017, we would have been able to maintain a significant number of these jobs — bolstering our local economy, rather than the economy of other communities where patients are being referred for their patient care,” he said.

“As we are all aware, the health care dollars that are generated in our communities through our insurance coverages and from Medicare and Medicaid are limited,” Schon continued. “If patients are referred out of this community for services that are provided at our local hospital, the result will be the loss of these services in the future, eventually leading to the further loss of jobs and jeopardizing the hospital’s future ability to continue to provide the full scope of services it currently provides for our community 24 hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days a year.”

Despite its challenges, DCHS continues to earn national recognition for patient safety and service. Recently, Becker’s Hospital Review ranked DCHS as one of the 100 Great Community Hospitals in the nation. In May, DCHS again was named recipient of the Healthgrades 2018 Patient Safety Excellence Award, placing it among the top 10 percent of all short-term acute care hospitals in the nation.

In other business:

— Patient activity for June showed DCHS cared for 220 inpatients; 16,260 patients in the outpatient hospital setting, including 1,162 in the Emergency Department; and 11,513 patients in physician offices. Uncompensated care provided for the month totaled $635,685.

— Eide Bailly delivered its independent auditor’s report that identified no major changes to the 2017 financial report.

— After 30 years, Eileen Sparpana will step down as chief financial officer to become chief financial officer at Bay College, starting Monday. Controller Debra Hanson has been appointed as the interim chief financial officer, effective immediately.

— Joy Carlson is leaving as the DCHS executive assistant after more than 34 years. Patti Mattson has accepted the interim executive assistant duties.

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