The Bradley County Medical Center Board of Directors met Tuesday, Oct. 22 inside the hospital’s conference room for its monthly gathering. Discussions included executive updates, financial reports, policy approvals, use of sales tax funds, and more.
The first order of business was the approval of the minutes from September’s meeting before Controller Matt Pace spoke on financials. Pace said most service lines were about the same or up compared to the prior month and year. Swing bed days are up 54% compared to last year with Home Health seeing the next largest volume increase. All of the Outpatient Therapy services (Physical, Occupational, and Speech) saw increases.
The total gross patient revenue came in at $3,717,970, while the net operating revenue was at $1,770,816. There was a net loss of $275,994. The sales tax fund added $131,194.88 to bring the total in the fund to $6,056, 256.42.
Lesle Huitt, BCMC’s CEO/CFO, informed the board that the best news from September was that the hospital didn’t lose cash. There have been improvements made to reduce the operating losses. The first half of last fiscal year saw a monthly average loss of $445,000, while the last six months saw it come in at $274,000. She also stated that BCMC did well in managing expenses as they came in under the operating budget by almost $600,000 for expenditures.
Huitt continued by reporting the BCMC Rural Health Clinic recorded a total of 356 new patients since January. The largest decrease in volume was acute patient days. There was some discussion about how insurances pay for these visits and how they won’t pay for these visits after the fourth day, so the average length of stay must be less than four days. She concluded by informing the members that the September financials will change somewhat as they work through the end of the fiscal year. One reason is inventory, which takes a lot of time to complete.
Chief Nursing Officer Jamie Wolfe updated the board on the issues with transferring patients he had mentioned in previous meetings. Wolfe said this has been better this month and looks to be improving. There are still some issues, but not nearly as many as they were experiencing in the months prior.
Chief Operating Officer Leeanna Williams let the board know the new X-ray room was installed and is up and running. Staying with Radiology, they had their mammogram inspection early in the month and it went great as they had no deficiencies in what is a thorough process. She continued by saying the Pink in the Park event on Oct. 3 went well. There were several vendors that said they want to be a part of it in the future and there were a number of mammograms scheduled during the festivities. Her final update was about BCMC participating in upcoming Halloween events in Hermitage and Warren along with an open house at Outpatient Therapy.
Policy approvals were the next order of business. Singular policies of Refund Checks, Credit Balances, and Medicare and Medicaid Bad Debts were approved by the board. Additionally, the board approved a change in the Medical Staff bylaws concerning Physician Extenders.
The meeting transitioned to items up for a vote for the use of sales tax funds. BCMC presented repair to a chiller at a cost of $4,077.80 for the first item. The second item was Huitt asking for an additional $15,000 to use Wipfli for consulting. The board previously approved $15,000 for their help. Huitt said the bill for that was a little more than $15,000 and that she wanted to keep them around longer to help with the transition of HealthRecon Connect, the new revenue cycle company, within Meditech.
Other items put up for a vote for the use of sales tax funds included six wall mounts for cardiac monitors to be placed in the PACU (Post-Anesthesia Care Unit) at a total cost of $1,800, four 3M Bair Hugger warming blankets at a cost of $6,619.60, and a refurbished cardiac defibrillator crash cart at a price of $2,150. All of the items were approved unanimously with a single vote. There was some discussion about a boiler that has some upcoming fixes, but the hospital is still waiting on quotes for the job.
The board went into executive session and approved medical staff recommendations once they returned to regular session. Additionally, the operating budget for the 2027 fiscal year was approved by the board. The meeting was then adjourned with no further business.
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