Like the whole town, Mammoth Hospital has suffered due to the poor snow year and lack of visitors. Hospital officials have responded with an across the Board plan for employees to take one unpaid day off per pay period.
Hospital CEO Gary Myers said of the lack of snow, “We have definitely been affected. The Emergency Department and Orthopedics drive some measurability of profit. With the Mountain down very significantly,” he said, “our numbers are down. Healthcare is a function of people in town.”
Myers added that the hospital’s clinics remain very strong. He said, “We’re meeting our mission of healthcare for the local community.” Of the overall hospital condition, Myers said it’s not a dire situation, but the hospital will be lucky to break even this year. For the last 3 to 4 years, Mammoth Hospital, said Myers, has had a 6 to 7% margin.
The CEO praised the staff for holding down expenses and for cooperating in a new Flexing Program. Myers said there could have been lay offs, but the decision was made to take time off to save money. Said Myers, “We made a decision as an organization. Everyone, from myself to housekeeping will take time off.”
Myers said the Hospital has asked people to take their paid vacation time off, and, he said, workers are compelled to take one day off per pay period. He said, “It’s not a hard hit. We don’t want to lose anyone.” Now, just like the rest of the town, the Hospital looks forward to a busy summer season ahead. Myers feels confident in the condition of Mammoth Hospital. He said the organization has 195 days of cash on hand. “And,” he said, “we’re all hoping for a good snow year next year. This year we lost all the major holidays because of no snow.”
Aside from the local conditions that impact all businesses, Mammoth Hospital faces other challenges. Myers said the Affordable Care Act is changing the payment environment. The federal government has required other changes. Myers said the Accountable Care Organization focuses on the highest risk patients and requires hospitals to care for them on an outpatient basis before their chronic conditions grow worse. Mammoth hired a new Nurse Practitioner to do this work, which borders on social service. The idea, Myers said, is for a number of organizations to keep tabs on the same people they all help.
Myers said he and Northern Inyo Hospital’s CEO joined a lot of other rural hospital administrators for a meeting in Reno recently. Myers said all the institutions are struggling. Most have had to convert to Electronic Health Records – computerized health care. It’s changing the way care is delivered and in many cases placing a burden on health care providers, who will also launch into a new bureaucratic coding system in October – another unfunded mandate from the federal government.
The financial challenge, Myers said, is the greatest issue with a low volume year and lots of challenges in-house. He said, “We’re asking staff to cut back but to get more done.”
The number one cause of bankruptcy in the US is unpaid medical bills, and the great majority of those going bankrupt for that reason have medical insurance. There is nothing to be proud about in our method of delivering and paying for health care. Northern Inyo Hospital is just one… Read more »
Here is some more selfless, priceless, ghoulish work but multiple Mammoth Hospital physicians and support staff who placed themselves in a very dangerous situation to do nothing more than serve people in need: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-typhoon-relief,0,889048.story#ixzz2xKBcIhLF By Jason Felch November 10, 2013, 5:41 p.m. A group of doctors from the Mammoth Lakes… Read more »
I wish we could instantly “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” people in and out of government.
GHOULS!!! http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/09/17/us-usa-healthcare-deaths-idUSTRE58G6W520090917 (Reuters) – Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year — one every 12 minutes — in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday. “We’re losing more Americans every… Read more »
It wasn’t until you said, “Or is this too condescending?”
BK
I’m sorry Bennett I’m not buying the argument of they are doing the best they can. The reality is that at least for NIH, the prices for many procedures are up to 10 times higher then in many other hospitals so people are choosing to go out of the area.… Read more »
advocate…..disagree….when I had to have a “procedure” done last year at Bishop NIH,everyone,from greeting staff,to prep staff,nurses to the doctors,they made what I had done a much better experience than what I was being told it would be or what I expected….not to mention the problem I was having back… Read more »
” It’s a for profit industry run by ghouls.”
Really?
If Mammoth Hospital closed it would be seriously detrimental to the locals.
Yet if they make enough to stay open they are, in your view, run by “ghouls”.
I think maybe you should walk that comment back, Mr. Warner.
Benett, The profit motive drives innovation and hastens the advancement of most things we use and consume. The drug companies may spend into the hundreds of millions to research and bring to market life improving or saving medicines on the hopes of making billions in return. These billions help cover… Read more »
I am referring to the health insurance industry. I am also aware that Medicare has handed down rules to hospitals that have made life very difficult.
BK
The NIH is not a business. It is an agency of the U.S. Dept. of Health. It is a source for funding for research institutions.
Could some of you at least try to get your facts right before writing?
http://www.nih.gov/
Could you be a little less condescending and more willing to be a partner in helpful information?
Also – our local hospitals do the best they can under difficult circumstances and changing government regulations are not helping.
If you must pick on someone, make it Congress.
BK
I am in no way descending to the level of the maroons you patronize here. con·de·scend [kon-duh-send] Show IPA verb (used without object) 1. to behave as if one is conscious of descending from a superior position, rank, or dignity. 2. to stoop or deign to do something: He would… Read more »
maroons?
Ahh, classic Ken Warner. When you can’t win the debate with facts or logic, call people names! Great Ken, but you left out the trump card. You forgot to call everyone racists. How do people tell if they are a Maroon? Is it a color thing? If so, you are… Read more »
Bugs Bunny Ms. Kessler. Wadda Maroon.
Like a cornered, scared dog, Ken huddles in the corner trying to show his little sharp teeth by opening a dictionary only to confirm the definition fits him. Like a troll under the bridge throwing names and one-liners at pedestrians of no value, he hurls out nonsense and the crowd… Read more »
Guies where NIH funding comes from Ken. No not the money fairy.
I believe the NIH reference above was to Northern Inyo Hospital.
KEN- Wow, you’re something else. NIH is Northern Inyo Hospital.
“The Emergency Department and Orthopedics drive some measurability of profit. With the Mountain down very significantly,” he said, “our numbers are down. Healthcare is a function of people in town.” This is what I hate about health care in America. It’s a for profit industry run by ghouls. The translation… Read more »
The answer to your question is hospitals run similar to businesses. They can’t operate for long in the red.
Complete health care reform would have to come before that changes.
BK
That doesn’t answer my question it just reinforces my views. Health care should not be a business. There are people making really good money off injured, sick and dieing people who never even get close to them. That’s not right.
Totally agree. Too bad Congress didn’t vote in a single payer system or medicare for all and work to take the profit motive out of health care.
BK
I was hoping for Medicade to be made open to everybody. But it’s not hard to figure out why it wasn’t done.
The health care lobby appears to be very powerful and it manipulates both parties to the extreme.
Interesting theory Ken. Where does to money come fro, the Health Fairy?
The hospital has to survive and function in the real world Ken. Your world does not exist.
You are so wise. Never thought of it that way.
Go ahead and rant about this Ken Warner. Pretty good medical services for “ghouls”. Even in a lean year like this one they see thousands of patients a year just in the ER alone. Hope you never need their “for profit services”, but if you do, it will be some… Read more »
Great post Greg! In Ken’s world the facts don’t exist.