By David Grant Long

If projections for next year’s revenues and expenses hold true, Southwest Memorial Hospital should end 2000 nearly a half-million dollars in the black, its directors heard last week, as opposed to this year, when the profit-and-loss statement will show the facility finishing approximately that amount in the red.

"We’re just about breaking even except for that medical office building," said George Brisson, chief operating officer for Southwest Health Systems, the non-profit corporation that runs the hospital. Brisson was referring to writing off the expenses associated with a defunct project that would have built a $6 million office building next to the hospital with bonds that would have cost $10 million to repay.

More than $400,000 was spent in consulting, architectural and legal fees to develop preliminary plans and a bonding mechanism for the project, which was championed by former CEO Steve Selzer and killed after new directors were elected to the Montezuma County Hospital District last year. Those expenses had already been paid, but remained listed on the books as assets until being included as a debit in the 1999 profit and loss calculations.

So through October, SHS experienced a net loss of $527,000, according to the budget figures, and will fall far short of the 1999 projection of a $76,000 profit; however, Brisson explained, this also includes what will be, by year’s end, close to $2 million in bad debts, either from charity cases or uninsured people who didn’t pay their bills.

Next year, he said, it is hoped as much as half this sort of uncompensated patient care can be covered through Medicaid, the state program that insures poor people who meet certain guidelines. SHS recently hired a person to examine the financial situations of people with unpaid bills and encourage those who qualify for Medicaid to apply for benefits. Brisson said approximately 10 percent of the patient care provided at Southwest is uncompensated at this point, and he believes this can be reduced greatly through such scrutiny.

The hospital’s 2000 budget lists more than $1 million in depreciation of assets, he said, but also provides for nearly that much in capital acquisitions, including $213,000 to purchase an MRI device that is currently being leased.

Next year’s budget includes 2-percent pay increases for all employees, plus $100,000 for a 2-percent "market adjustment" for nurses, since their wages were found to be uncompetitive with other area hospitals. A study is presently being conducted and further adjustments in the wages of other employees may be made in April if there is money available.

Additionally, SHS will restore its employee retirement plan, which was eliminated last year, and contribute an amount equal to 2 percent of their salaries to this fund.

The new budget also includes $27,000 for replacing badly worn carpeting in the hallways and other public areas of the hospital. SHS board President John Greenmeier said he had been opposed to this expenditure until he walked the hallways recently and saw the carpeting for himself.

The SHS board also heard from Charles Hubbard, a member of the building committee overseeing the expansion of the emergency room.

Although that project is moving along well, Hubbard reported, the builder is not going to finish in the seven months specified in the contract; however, he explained, since there are no penalties associated with not completing it on time, the clause in the contract is essentially meaningless at any rate.

Rather than early April, the new emergency room should be totally operational by the beginning of June, according to Hubbard.

Brisson reported that no progress had been made on negotiations about renewing the lease on the Vista Grande Nursing Home, currently leased to Continuum, Inc. of Greeley. He said a consultant who is supposed to develop negotiating points for SHS based on financial data he requested from Brisson had never gotten back in touch.