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Saturday, Dec. 20, 2008

Peach hospital authority solidifies indigent care funding for five years

FORT VALLEY — The Peach County Hospital Authority approved an agreement Friday solidifying the county’s annual $450,000 contribution to the hospital’s indigent care trust fund for the next five years.

Over the past 12 years, the county government has provided the funding, but Friday marked the first time that the authority and the Peach County commissioners have made plans for future years and put it in writing.

Hospital administrator Nancy Peed said the agreement would help secure financing, as the governing body has applied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund a new $25 million hospital along the Ga. 247 Connector.

The agreement calls for the funding to go toward indigent Peach County residents who have lived in the state for at least six months prior to care. The agreement also says that if the authority does not receive a loan or issue bonds for the construction of the new hospital within one year of the agreement, it will be terminated.

At the meeting, financial documents showed that the hospital was in the red $474,564 for fiscal 2008. In 2007, the hospital’s loss was $626,194.

Finance Director Lisa Urbistondo pointed out that bad debt accounted for about 10 percent of the hospital’s revenue deductions in the past year, a decrease from about 15 percent last year.

She attributed much of that improvement to the hospital’s new medical screening process that kicked off in March and aimed to educate the public about the emergency room and its operations.

Urbistondo said the percentage is a good number for the hospital, adding that other area hospitals average around 7 percent. She credited the hospital’s management for the move as well as for the hospital’s losing less money.

“It shows that management is making an effort to control expenses,” she said.

Peed said it’s a beginning, as the hospital plans to look at more ways to cut expenses in January.

“There’s a lot of things we can do without affecting the quality of care,” she said.

The hospital is also looking at ways to increase business. Some options include recruiting additional physicians and placing greater emphasis on outpatient services.

“We have to find what will work here,” Peed said.

To contact writer Natasha Smith, call 923-3109, extension 236.