Erlanger Health System showed a $726,527 profit for November with its surgical payer mix improving to 34 percent up from a low of 28 percent.
Thus far in the fiscal year, the hospital has a profit of $63,950. At this time last fiscal year, the public hospital had lost over $2.1 million.
Overall hospital admissions were down 2.2 percent from this time last year. However, the hospital was boosted with an increase in surgical inpatients by 10.1 percent.
Erlanger is moving forward with two major improvements to the surgical area.
The board finance committee approved a $1.4 million project for two new Children's Hospital surgery rooms.
Interim CEO Charlsetta Woodard-Thompson said the objective of the Children’s Hospital OR expansion is to improve the overall surgical experience for families using TCTCH for surgery and outpatient procedures. “We want to continue to provide high quality care in a safe environment that is respectful of our patients’ need for privacy and to foster continued growth of our outpatient services,” she told trustees.
The committee also approved this resolution, following an endorsement for the enhancements by pediatric surgeons Drs. Curtis Koonz and Michael Care, as well as Dr. Alan Kohrt.
Also approved was a $2.86 million project to build out a much-larger surgical waiting area on the Erlanger side. The latter project will include two new outside entrances on Hampton Street. One is a valet parking area and the other is a walk-in area.
Hospital officials said the current waiting room is so small that families are cramped and there is no privacy when doctors are discussing cases with families.
J&J Construction has a $2.1 million contract for the first phase of the surgical waiting room project.
It will go into space that has been occupied by the hospital library, which was moved across Third Street.
The project is the first step of many required for implementation of Erlanger’s surgery master renovation plan. Ms. Woodward-Thompson told the committee that the objective of this project was four-fold: (1) to provide a single entry point with minimal walking/navigational needs; (2) provide an up-to-date and expanded waiting area; (3) provide an enhanced patient care experience for our patients, families, physicians and staff and (4) vacate the existing location for expansion of surgery.
The project is funded from proceeds of the sale of the Erlanger East POBs.
The Budget and Finance Committee approved this resolution and trustee Jennifer Stanley stated that she “was "thrilled to see us make these types of improvements in our infrastructure, giving Erlanger a world-class environment to go with our world-class care."
Surgical outpatients were 2.6% over budget, compared to 15% under budget in September - and 3% greater than prior year. Physician practice outpatient visits were 1.8% over budget and 7% greater than prior year.
DaVinci robot procedures at Erlanger increased by over 52% in October and bariatric surgery procedures were up by 62%.
Emergency room visits in October were 1.8% over budget and 5.9% greater than the previous year.
Cardiac cath lab procedures were under budget by 6.8%, compared to 44% under budget in September. Helicopter patients were 18% under budget, compared to almost 30% under budget the previous month.
Finance Director Britt Tabor acknowledged the “phenomenal work” of the patient financial services team. “We had an all time record high - in the history of Erlanger - of $45 million in collections during the month of October,” he told trustees, noting that Erlanger’s net days in accounts receivable was a record low of 48 days in October.
Paid FTE’s per adjusted occupied bed was 5.60 compared to a budgeted 5.40.
Mr. Tabor also reported, that just four months into our fiscal year, Erlanger has already provided more than $26 million in health care services to the community as part of the Good Samaritan Report , which he said is "far more than any other area healthcare provider."
Laurene Vamprine presented a resolution for the purchase of hardware and software for the replacement of physical servers. This project sought the replacement and consolidation of 35 physical servers to reduce hardware failures and downtime. Cost of the project was not to exceed $307,800. The committee approved this resolution.
The last resolution presented to the finance committee was by Joe Winick, senior vice president of Planning and Business Development and liaison to the Dodson Avenue/Southside Community Health Centers. Mr. Winick sought committee approval to engage an accounting and consulting firm already familiar with Erlanger (Pershing Yoakley & Associates) to provide a board education program to the Dodson Avenue/Southside Community Health Centers board of directors.