PORT ANGELES — The Olympic Medical Center board of commissioners learned at their last meeting of 2023 that the system had lost $1.3 million in November and a total of $24 million through the end of that month this year.
Chief Financial Officer Lorraine Cannon said November was nonetheless an improvement over October’s $3.45 million loss. Among the challenges OMC continued to face were low patient volumes.
“Net revenue is our biggest struggle right now,” Cannon told commissioners at their Dec. 20 meeting held virtually in Linkletter Hall at OMC.
“We are seeing some work that is being done with controlling our expenses,” Cannon said. “The number of travelers (contract employees) are down and that number will go down over time as we keep recruiting.”
Several events in November contributed to reduced outpatient numbers, she said, including the Thanksgiving holiday that limited the number of walk-in clinic patients, and an internet and wireless communication outage that affected businesses across the North Olympic Peninsula and severely hampered hospital operations.
Cannon reported that OMC had just 55 days of cash on hand that could be attributed to some large expenses, but said she believed that number would go up at the end of December.
Board member Phyllis Bernard asked if OMC could reach 60 days of cash on hand by the end of the year, but Cannon said she did not know yet if that would happen.
The hospital must maintain 60 days of cash on hand according its agreement with KeyBank, which holds $60 million in OMC general obligation bonds. Although KeyBank transferred one $20 million OMC bond to Altruist Bank as part of a board-approved measure to extend the tender date three more years, KeyBank still collects payments on the bond.
CEO Darryl Wolfe reported that five candidates had been identified in a search for a chief physician officer to replace Joshua Jones, who departed at the end of October.
“We have two coming out in January,” Wolfe said. “I’d have loved to have had the position filled when Josh left, but I’m optimistic we can get a winner out of one of them.”
Wolfe said if OMC couldn’t fill the position quickly, it might hire an interim chief physician officer because the role was critical to hospital operations.
Advanced Operations Partners, a consulting firm OMC hired to help it improve its operations and financial performance by helping it optimize its current services, identifying areas of improvement and enhancing its project management system, among other assistance, has started its work on-site, Wolfe said.
Improving OMC’s coding system was a priority, he said, so it could capture revenue that might otherwise be missed.
“We just want to get paid for what we do,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe acknowledged the profound financial pressures OMC was facing, and said he appreciated the support of the hospital’s board and staff.
“It’s been a very, very difficult year,” Wolfe said. “Everyone in this room has been trying and doing as much as we can. We’ve done a lot getting to this point and in 2024 a lot of good things are coming.”
________
Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at Paula.Hunt@peninsuladailynews.com
