Medical Center posts "phenomenal" month

After a downturn earlier in the year, Coulee Medical Center earned its keep in a strong March.

"March was a phenomenal month," said Chief Financial Officer Kelly Hughes Monday at the hospital district board meeting. "Stats were through the roof."

"Inpatient days" in the hospital, she said, numbered 113, which is 53 more than in February.

Patients visited the clinic 330 more times in March than in January, 274 more than in February.

The Emergency Department saw 354 visits in the month, 39 more than January, 49 more than February.

Services such as labs and imaging also saw a significant increase.

"So, a lot of hard work in March across the facility and just a really exciting month," Hughes said.

That all resulted in a financial gain for the month of more than $522,000, which put the year-to-date gain over $765,000, she said, compared to a budgeted gain of only about $36,000 through March. That gain was made on total operating revenue of about $3.8 million.

Total expenses were about $180,000 over budget, Hughes noted, due mostly to temporary manpower costs.

CMC had lost $226,000 in January.

"Our financial situation is good, but our financial situation is precarious," cautioned Chief Executive Officer Ramona Hicks earlier in the meeting. She said the CARES grants that helped sustain the hospital during the COVID pandemic are now gone, and they're finding insurance companies to be harder to work with these days.

Hicks presented commissioners with a revised organization chart, explaining that employees in key positions had become capable enough to deserve more control and better titles that better reflect their actual duties and, in several cases, give them different responsibilities.

"The people that we have on this chart are people that have been coming up through the ranks there. They've shown themselves to be really prepared and ready and diligent and good at their work, and we're going to ask even more of them."

Hicks outlined many of the changes proposed across the organization and said it would result in a total of about $64,000 in increases in salaries.

The board approved the changes.