Commissioners adopt public comment policy

MOSES LAKE — While patient revenue was under the budget target for November, Samaritan Healthcare still finished the month with a profit.

Chief administrative officer Alex Town said net income for November was $276,336, and net income for 2019 through November was $6,590,586.

Town said a number of doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners took time off in November, and the Thanksgiving holiday also had an impact on revenue. Inpatient revenue reflected a drop in obstetrics and medical admissions, he said,

Bad debt and charity care expenses were below the budget target, but the hospital district has provided $6,282,995 in uncompensated care through November.

While gross revenue was down, so were expenses. For November, expenses were 4 percent under budget, while revenue was 3 percent under budget. Town attributed some of the decrease in expenses to a decrease in the number of temporary nurses, reflecting successful efforts by nursing supervisors to hire additional permanent staff.

For the year, expenses were 3 percent under budget, Town said.

The time the average patient spent in the hospital was more than the budget target. Town said that was due to difficulties in finding places for some patients who required a transfer.

In other business at the commission meeting Jan. 28, commissioners voted to establish a public comment policy at commission meetings.

The discussion over public comment followed an appearance by a group of doctors at the Dec. 17 commission meeting. The doctors, all surgeons, said they were there to express concerns over the hospital’s relationship with its nurse-anesthetists. At the Jan. 28 meeting commissioners voted to hire a consultant to review operations in the hospital’s surgical department.

But after the Dec. 17 discussion, hospital officials discovered there wasn’t a public comment policy. The proposal approved by commissioners will ask visitors to sign up at the beginning of the meeting, and establish a three-minute time limit for comments.

Chief Executive Officer Theresa Sullivan announced that the clinic on Aspi Boulevard, which opened in October, was visited by 416 family medicine patients in December, and that 357 patients went to its urgent care department.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].