NRMC finances better in March

Nevada Daily Mail

After facing a large shortfall after the month of February, the Nevada Regional Medical Center was able to give a much more positive report during their financial meeting Monday, discussing the month of March.

"We're celebrating much better numbers," said Mike Harbor, interim chief executive officer while Kevin Leeper was out of town due to a family emergency in Texas. "The improvements have been significant."

With the average census up and expenses kept as low as reasonable, NRMC faced a loss of just more than $220,000 instead of approximately $1 million in the previous month due to an error in the uncollectible debts accounts receivable. With the hospital no longer understaffed as it once was, the admission numbers are expected to continue to rise.

"That's only going to improve every year," hospital board secretary Larry Bledsoe said.

The amount of cash days on hand still remains lower than the hospital would like, however. Harbor said although it is not a good amount, it is acceptable for the time being as they work to increase those numbers.

"That process is slow coming," Bledsoe said.

So far this year, the hospital has a net loss of more than $2 million, compared to the nearly $4.1 million in losses by this time in the 2014 fiscal year. Some of the services, including those offered by the behavioral unit as well as surgeries and deliveries, have increased over the previous year by as much as about 48 percent.

"We've turned that around and improved our bottom line by 50 percent," Harbor said of the improvement over last year's deficit.

By continuing to keep expenses to a minimum and increasing their services and admissions, NRMC hopes to have even better financial reports in the final months of the fiscal year, which ends June 30.

"We've really put a damper on spending in the last few months," Bledsoe said. "We're hoping it turns around and we start showing some positive numbers before year end."

Harbor pointed out that despite a couple hard months such as October and February, when the hospital faced larger losses, the finances have remained pretty steady.

The long term care facilities financial report shows they continue to meet and surpass their budgeted revenue for this fiscal year.

"We've made budget already for the year, with three months to go," said Steve Branstetter, NRMC's long term care administrative officer, adding that the month of April is also looking positive.

The Barone and Moore-Few centers ended the month with a financial gain of a combined $58,785, with a net income total of more than $300,000 for the year through March.

Branstetter said much of that revenue was due to reaching their census goal of 120 between both facilities, with a daily average of about 115 in March, as well as an increase in the Medicare days. There were also only 12 discharges in the month of March, instead of the average of 20 in previous months.

"It's been a good year for us," Branstetter said.

The board approved the purchase of 40 handheld radios for the long-term care facilities, replacing the pagers they had been using.