WMC starting to see recovery from COVID-19 restrictions

WORLAND – During their monthly meeting Tuesday, Aug. 25, Chief Financial Officer Jennifer McMillan informed the Washakie Medical Center Board that the Washakie Medical Center is behind budget for the year by approximately $396,000.

“We are still not quite where we wanted to be but we are starting to see some recovery from the COVID period,” McMillan said.

McMillan said that the Swing Bed program has really slowed down at the hospital. Swing Bed is a Medicare program that allows for patients to receive skilled care services when acute hospital care is no longer required but the patient continues to need services that cannot be easily provided at home.

She also said that bad debt has been below budget for the year and charity write-offs are above budget with more of the write-offs being moved over to charity and that is where the hospital would rather see the dollars.

McMillan said that the reimbursement team did a half-year analysis of the Medicare reimbursement and applied over $150,000 in negative adjustments. She said this process is important to understand where the reimbursements will be at year’s end.

She said that WMC has received $403,000 in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) funding, but was informed that some of the funding may come off of the financials due to a new federal algorithm that determines what the funding can and cannot be used for. She said it is more beneficial to be conservative with the money should the federal government come asking for payment later on.

McMillan said that year-to-date admissions are below budget by 21% and patient days are down 49% and down 37% from a year ago.

Outpatient surgeries were strong but WMC did not meet expectations on inpatient surgeries.

McMillan reported that the WMC is hoping to meet or exceed budget expectations for August.

OTHER BUSINESS

In Chief Executive Officer Jay Stallings’ report, he told the board that Banner will purchase the Wyoming Medical Center over time, including the building, land, equipment, etc. for a total of approximately $157 million. He said that the purpose of the purchase is to grow and help develop health care in Wyoming.

He said that they received a large amount of notes from kids that participated in the Washakie County Fair, and felt that the hospital was represented well at the fair. He said that there were some COVID-19 cases that were linked to fair, but not a huge explosion.

Stallings discussed with the board the importance of Likelihood to Recommend (LTR) which is a reflection of the customer experience at the WMC. He said that they have reviewed the LTR’s and discussed with the leadership team what the hospital’s focus will be.

He also recognized Amber Tibbits as the employee of the month.

Stallings said that the new parking lot has been well received by staff and community. The total cost for the project was $310,131.50.