PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center replaced its decade-old ventilator line with three new machines that have carbon dioxide-monitoring technology.
The seven commissioners approved the $95,850 purchase during Wednesday night’s board meeting in Linkletter Hall.
The five ventilators being used now were deployed in 2001, and the manufacturer will stop making parts at the end of this year.
“It is time to move on,” said Dr. Scott Kennedy, OMC’s chief medical officer.
Pulmonologists and respiratory therapists at OMC recommended the Servo-I ventilators the board approved by a unanimous vote.
“Our goal is to put in place the three new ventilators, these Servo-Is, in the CCU [critical care unit] here at OMC by this April,” Kennedy said.
The total cost exceeded the budgeted $90,741 because of $4,800 for software for carbon dioxide monitoring, Kennedy said.
Commissioner John Nutter, chairman of the Budget and Audit Committee, said OMC staff has “done a remarkable job keeping the ones we have going for 10 years.”
“But I think it’s time to move on and upgrade,” Nutter added.
Commissioner Jim Cammack asked Kennedy if the three new ventilators would satisfy the day-to-day needs of the hospital.
“We can probably count on one hand the number of times in a year that we would need more than three ventilators,” Kennedy said. “That would be a very unusual situation.”
The old ventilators will be kept in reserve, however, in case they are needed.
In other board action, commissioners approved an $89,000 design contract for additional office space at the Sequim medical services building and an $81,615 design contract to expand the OMC primary care clinic at Eighth and Cherry streets in Port Angeles.
Hospital officials were briefed on the yearly financial statement audit, which was prepared by the accounting firm Moss Adams LLC.
“There’s no uncorrected adjustments in 2010,” said Eric Nicholson, a partner at Moss Adams. “The books were ready. We audited those numbers. We agreed with those numbers. We believe that your numbers were sound.”
Nicholson said OMC’s financial outlook mirrors other hospital districts struggling with lower patient volumes and higher uncompensated care.
Uncompensated care, defined as charity care or bad debt, was $5.4 million in 2006 compared with $8.5 million in 2010, Nicholson said.
Revenue is holding flat because some patients are opting out of heath care services because of the cost, Nicholson added.
OMC’s operating margin — or income divided by revenue — was 1.5 percent over the past five years. Hospital officials said they need to achieve a 4 percent margin to properly reinvest in capital improvements.
Nicholson said there is “a lot of uncertainty” about the health care reform law that passed last year and how it will affect hospitals. He said the state’s $4.6 billion budget deficit for the 2011-2013 biennium is adding to the uncertainty.
“Right now, the big news is reform,” Nicholson said. “We just don’t know what’s going to happen, which makes it hard for people to govern health care organizations right now.”
Chief Executive Officer Eric Lewis briefed the commissioners on fiscal challenges facing OMC.
“The state level is probably the most concerning of what’s going to happen to Olympic Medical Center’s reimbursement,” Lewis said.
OMC was paid $1.8 million last year through a program called Certified Public Expenditure for Medicaid inpatient reimbursement.
“We want to preserve it and maintain it,” Lewis said. “There is concern because the funds are limited. There’s a lot of uncertainty of whether this program will even continue. This is probably our No. 1 issue.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
