NRMC long-term care takes loss

Nevada Daily Mail

In recent months, Nevada Regional Medical Center's long-term care administrative officer Steve Branstetter has been able to tell the hospital board during its monthly meeting that the long-term facilities have been making money. But at the financial committee meeting Monday, he was forced to announce that the two facilities had lost money during the month of January.

The long-term care facilities experienced a net loss of $6,271 out of their $19,818 budget in January. Moore-Few Care Center had a loss of $9,959 while Barone Alzheimer's Care Center had a slight gain of $2,950.

Year to date, the facilities have a $202,960 profit, with their budget projections at $139,077.

"We're still ahead," Branstetter said.

Branstetter said he looked over the financial statements from previous years and said it has been a common trend over the past three or four years to have a loss in January as the holiday season catches up. January 2014's loss was even greater.

The long-term care facilities faced sick staff and staff turnover, as well as workmen's compensation claims during January, which impacted the finances. Moore-Few also had a large pharmacy bill for a patient. Branstetter said health claims and x-ray and lab requests were up in January.

The facilities' census numbers were also slightly below budget, with the census for Moore-Few at 72.5 on a budget of 74, while Barone's census was 34.5, below the budgeted 38.

However, the long-term care facilities' accounts receivables days dropped 1.24 days to 48.4, coming closer to their goal. The cash on hand increased by 9.5 days to a total of 241.1.

After the slight slump in January, Branstetter said he expects the finances at the facilities to again return to the positive in February.

"We believe our February numbers have been running pretty high," Branstetter said. "So hopefully we'll have a good comeback in February."

During the meeting, chief financial officer Greg Shaw also gave a financial report for NRMC, saying their financial situation continues to recover after facing a large deficit in 2014.

"We've had a good year so far," Shaw said.

NRMC had a net loss of $11,459 in January, down from the $220,050 loss in January 2014 and the budgeted loss of more than $273,000.

At the beginning of the fiscal year, NRMC had projected a loss of $1,841,808 by the end of January, but currently have a loss of $715,868. In 2014, the year to date loss had been $3,170,934 at the end of January.

Shaw said the employee health care expenses are the main reason NRMC did not break even the first seven months of the fiscal year, as those expenses came to about $643,000 over the budgeted expense. The hospital faced a large number of health claims, an uncontrollable expense that chief executive officer Kevin Leeper said could easily change.

"It took us a while to get here," board secretary Larry Bledsoe said of the shortfall they began the fiscal year with. "It'll take a little bit longer to get out. I appreciate all the hard work that everyone's put into this to turn it around."