Stephens Co. Hospital Reporting $4 Million Loss

Stephens County Hospital says it lost an estimated $4.2 million in the fiscal year that just ended.

Members of the Stephens County Hospital Authority met with Stephens County Commissioners Dean Scarborough and Stanley London, along with Stephens County Administrator Phyllis Ayers on Tuesday to discuss the hospital’s financial state.

The hospital’s fiscal year ended on Friday.

Stephens County Hospital Authority Chair Mark Wilkinson said rural hospitals like Stephens County are “taking a beating” right now.

According to financial numbers from the hospital, expenses have remained steady, but revenues have dropped.

Hospital officials said the main culprit is low reimbursements, explaning that for every dollar the hospital bills, it collects 34 cents.

Along with that, the hospital said volume indicators are down across the board.

Overall, the hospital said out of 100 beds, the average daily census has not been out of the 30s in any month in the past year.

To help increase revenue, Anderson said the hospital needs to look at recruiting doctors to help increase that volume.

The hospital says it wants to look at hiring up to 6 or 7 physicians, including OB/GYN and specialists to help fill needs.

To do that, hospital officials said it might require borrowing money, possibly up to $2 million, to help get those physician practices off the ground and generating cash flow.

In addition, Anderson said that the hospital is going to look at new services it can provide and branch into that could provide new revenue streams.

On the other side, Anderson said the hospital is looking at ways it can still cut costs further.

She said layoffs are not taking place and are not planned, but she added staffing has to match volume.

“We know that our volumes are down and continuing to stay down, so we are going to have to continue to make staffing decisions based on whether or not we have the volume,” said Anderson.

Anderson said that despite the negative numbers, she feels optimistic that Stephens County Hospital can turn it around.

“When you look at the last seven years, in those years, we have had four years with a positive margin and three with a negative margin,” said Anderson.

She added that those numbers, combined with low long-term debt, still put Stephens County Hospital in better shape than many hospitals.

Anderson did note, however, that those profitable years were due to one-time revenue sources, not operations, so the goal is to make a profit on operations alone.

County officials thanked the hospital for meeting to talk about these new numbers.