A reboot to the local hospital’s new building project was underway last week, with key contractors on site for predevelopment work.
Wrangell Medical Center CEO Robert Rang informed the hospital’s governing board at its March 15 meeting that principal architect Joann Lott and company president Wayne Jensen of Juneau-based firm Jensen Yorba Lott were in town preparing preliminary plans for a new hospital facility on Wood Street.
The pair had looked over the proposed site on March 13, which is adjacent to the current Alaska Island Community Services Clinic. Eventually the two campuses are envisioned to work in tandem to meet the community’s healthcare needs, connected by covered walkway.
Taking this into account along with staff input and facilities needs, Lott explained the scope and potential costs of a new building are taking shape.
“We have had a good two days working with everyone in this room,” she said. Lott told the board the plans should take two weeks or so to prepare, with cost estimates taking another on top of that. “Four weeks at the most, I think we’ll be able to talk numbers on that.” She added the design will only be preliminary, subject to ongoing modifications as the project unfolds.
On the numbers end of things, BDO USA in Anchorage has been hired to assess the project’s financial feasibility. The firm has worked with WMC on past such projects, and handles its accounting audits each year. A specialist with the company was brought in to take an initial look at the hospital’s financial standing and potential revenue, and if deemed feasible BDO would at a later stage help with preparations for a Department of Agriculture loan to pay for the project.
“If everything works out right, in a couple of months we should have all the data,” said Rang.
In other board business, in his monthly accounting report CFO Doran Hammett explained the hospital’s revenues were down close to 30 percent last month.
“February was not a very good revenue month,” he commented.
Hammett explained this was due to a combination of the shorter, 28-day month, an 18-percent drop in long term care revenues due to two freed-up beds, and ongoing kinks in the billing process. “We think some of these issues will turn themselves around,” he told board members.
Though expenses for the month were also higher than budgeted for, at $18,000 the amount was negligible. In terms of the year to-date, Hammett pointed out WMC was still ahead for budgeted expenditures.
“Overall, not a terrible month, but not exactly where we want to be,” he summarized.
The hospital ended the month with 39.3 days cash on hand – the length of time it could
pay for operations using only its reserve funds – at about $1.17M. As of the mid-month meeting, Hammett reported the hospital was down to 31 days. “Cashflow is going to slip a
little bit toward the end of the month,” he added, due to three payroll periods falling throughout March.
The hospital’s accounting will also be holding onto $100,000 in potential Medicare reimbursements due at the end of the fiscal year in June. The money is a portion of a sum the program had refunded to WMC last month, and subsequent adjustments are common.
“We may owe them some money, we may not,” Hammett explained. “We’ve been careful to sit on the money that’s been refunded to us” in either event.
One area of growth to the hospital’s revenue this month has been its laboratory services. With its annual subsidized blood draws in the run up to this year’s health fair, by midmonth Rang reported 267 tests had been ordered by residents, with more anticipated during the final run of early draws this week. “Most people are getting more than one test,” he added.
After Friday, blood sample draws will return to normal pricing from its $25-per-test rate. Results from the month’s samplings will be available at the fair on April 1. Hosting a variety of health- and wellness-related exhibits at the Nolan Center, the event will be running from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. this year.
Also boosting laboratory services has been “new hire” drug screenings for AICS staff in the run-up to next month’s expected merger with Southeast Alaska Community Health Consortium. The previous week had seen 60 such
screenings in one day, Rang told his board, with another 70 expected last week. The SEARHC acquisition of AICS is expected to conclude ahead of April 1.
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