While Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center’s financial state is not very healthy so far this year, news from the auditor was somewhat heartening.
The financials are “discouraging,” Controller Yvonne Gennrich reported to the hospital board Friday, May 21, 2010, with a 2010 loss of $550,000 so far. “We are only onethird of where we were last year at this time,” she said.
A low census might indicate good news regarding the health of the community, but it hasn’t been good for the bottom line. The patient count picked up in May, however. “We’ve been busy,” Gennrich said.
Jim Spreitzer of CPA firm McGladrey and Pullen reviewed his firm’s audit with the board. While the care center continues to be a drain on the facility’s budget, the facility’s whole asset to liability balance is good, and its number of “days of cash on hand” is good: 172.9 compared to a rural average of 66.5. Theage of the plant – 11.8 years – is greater than the rural average, however, and that means that the hospital will likely need to start spending money on building maintenance and equipment replacement.
New roof
The hospital and Sawtooth Mountain Clinic will be using the same company for needed roof work. The hospital board voted to hire Four-Seasons Energy Efficient Roofing to repair the hospital roof for an estimated $61,348.
Thenew roof will be white, which should reflect heat and reduce the cost of air conditioning in the summertime, Maintenance Director Rory Smith said.
Health Information Exchange
The hospital continues to work toward joining a Health Information Exchange that would allow doctors to find out where patients have received care so they could access previous health records. Patients would have the right to opt out of the program.
Controller Gennrich said the hospital nurses would like to be able to access records at Sawtooth Mountain Clinic, although the Health Information Exchange would initially include the locations
of previous records, not the records themselves.
Thecost of the Health Information Exchange software, which is a new type of product and would have to be programmed to comply with privacy laws, is expected to be under $100,000, and participation in the program will cost about $6,000 a year. Funding for the software would come from the hospital’s capital reserve account.
Board meeting schedule
The board voted to have their monthly meetings at 9:30 a.m. on the second to the last Thursday of each month.
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