PORT ANGELES — The numbers might look bleak on paper, but Olympic Medical Center Chief Financial Officer Lorraine Cannon told commissioners that the hospital’s fiscal performance has improved significantly from where it found itself at the same time last year.
OMC’s $1.23 million loss in July was a steep drop from July 2023, when it lost $3.6 million, Cannon said. Its year-to-date losses declined from $17.5 million in 2023 to $7.7 million so far this year.
“I would really love it to be less, but I am really proud of that number,” Cannon told hospital commissioners at their Wednesday workshop.
The hospital’s net operating margin also has improved from minus-9.2 percent in the first quarter of 2023 to minus- 1.7 percent in the first quarter of 2024.
“That is headway,” she said.
Those kinds of marginal but meaningful improvements demonstrate the effort OMC has invested in improving and enhancing services and monitoring expenses and implementing efficiency strategies, she said.
While radiation oncology procedures (down 14 percent) and surgeries (down 13 percent) lag behind 2023, the number of other services have gone up.
That is good news for OMC’s bottom line, Cannon said, although it doesn’t solve the persistent problem of the rising numbers of Medicare patients, which increased from 59.9 percent in 2023 to from 61.4 percent so far this year. Medicare only reimburses OMC on 80 percent of charges.
OMC also had to write off $700,000 in July for the long-term stays of two patients who could not be discharged until a safe place could be found for them, Cannon said.
T. Scott Brandon, chief executive officer of Olympic Peninsula Community Clinic, presented an update to commissioners on its programs and services, which it has been providing to the area’s most vulnerable members since 2002.
It already is seeing about 10 percent more clients than in 2023, Brandon said, when it recorded 1,306 in-clinic medical and counseling visits and 2,173 street and shelter encounters.
Among Olympic Peninsula Community Clinic’s services are a dental clinic, community outreach for those with behavioral health needs, a program for medications for opioid use disorder at the Clallam County jail and collaborations with law enforcement and first responders to engage with individuals who have chronic health needs.
Its partnership with Serenity House makes possible six beds for individuals with medical conditions, most of whom come directly from OMC.
“We are the only free and charitable clinic in Washington state that offers a medical respite program for homeless individuals,” Brandon said.
Clallam County Health and Human Services has been a primary funder of the medical respite program, but its support ends this year, Brandon said.
Olympic Peninsula Community Clinic is seeking the assistance of OMC and others to help it continue the service.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
