Wrangell Medical Center board members voted 7-0 to approve the hospital’s 2012 financials, and discussed progress on a new hospital.
The meeting was otherwise routine and brief, with two of the board’s nine members joining by phone.
According to hospital documents, the hospital’s total assets have increased from $9,168,445 in the year ending June 30, 2012 to $10,462,459 in the year ending June 30, 2013. That increase, coupled with other asset increases totaling about $100,000, amounts to about 15.9 percent in the hospital’s total assets. The vast majority of the increase came from increases in the value of the hospital’s property and equipment, which increased from $5,177,936 in 2012 to $6,281,278 in 2013.
The increase was a bookkeeping maneuver designed to bring the hospital’s internal accounting in line with city financials, said Chief Financial Officer Dana Strong.
“We received funding for grants,” he said. “The city was maintaining those grants. We were getting allocation from the city for those.”
Site preparation for a new hospital, including road construction, accounts for the difference, Strong said.
At the same time, operating expenses decreased by $9,608 – a drop of about .09 percent – to $9,662,258 in 2013, hospital documents show.
“My sense is that they made a conscious effort to hold the line on increases,” Strong said. “Usually we try to tie the increase in revenues to the increase in expenses. We try to hold that line from a budget standpoint.”
The board also heard an update from Wrangell Medical Center CEO Marla Sanger about an ongoing review of plans for a new hospital building by Ketchikan-based Peace Health. A review of plans was prompted in part by the state of the plan at the transition point between CEOs, Sanger told the board.
“I had expected the project manager would have a more cohesive package,” she said. “I’ve had to kind of piece that together myself. I’ve been trying to put these pieces together and create the story, and it’s very hard.”
Plan revisions would be based on service requirements, Sanger said.
“What is our business that we’re in, and what are the services we want to provide?” she said.
The answer to that question could determine how much square footage hospital designs call for, and how much the new facility will cost, Sanger said.
The state of the designs drew questions from board member Bernie Massin.
“That wasn’t determined when we did the plan?” he said.
“It was, but as it expanded quite a bit, there was a lot of space that was set aside for a very large space for physical therapy that might not be necessary,” Sanger said. “That’s part of what we’re revisiting. I’m just trying to get my head around what is it that we know of the current design, and what were some of the decisions that led to the change in the square foot, so that we don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater when we decide to make some minor changes or major.”
Medical board president Terri Henson suggested board members could conduct a workshop on the plan at a point in the future.
Plans for the new facility ought to be accelerated, Massin said.
“It seems like it’s going too slow,” he said. “It’s been a year and a half since we got on the board here, and we’re farther back than when we started.”
The pace toward a new facility was motivated by concern over costs and use, Sanger said. About $4 million has already been spent on the new facility plans, Sanger said.
“I’m just trying to help us be realistic about what is possible, so we don’t end up trying for something where we end up with nothing,” she said. “I’m just opening up the options to say what seems to make sense here.”
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