The Greene County Medical Center Board of Trustees met yesterday in regular session.

The medical center saw its monthly operating revenues for April come in under budget at $1.78 million from a budgeted amount of $1.86 million.  April’s operating expenses were also just under budget at $1,961,000 from a budgeted amount of $1,973,000.  The medical center took a $35,000 loss last month due to higher than expected deductions says Chief Financial Officer Mark VanderLinden.

Looking at the year-to-date operating totals, the hospital is at $17,270,000 for the fiscal year which is under budget of $18,864,000.  The operating expenses for the fiscal year is at $19,465,000 which is also under budget of $19,987,000.

VanderLinden reported that inpatient admissions are under budget for the year at 361 with a budget of 419.  However, patient days were up in April compared to March from 68-73 and the payer mix that showed an increase in the amount that BlueCross/BlueShield patients from 17-27% of how everyone paid for medical care at the hospital last month.

VanderLinden mentioned that both the emergency department and physical therapy saw its third highest month in April in terms of volumes while the pharmacy department had its second lowest month of the fiscal year for prescriptions.

In other business, the Board approved purchasing a Digital Discovery X-Ray machine and buying out its remaining lease contract with General Electric of a precision machine in the radiology department.

The Board discussed a request to increase its room rates by five-percent across the board for the long-term care unit.  Several board members shared comments that they received from residents or family members of current residents of long-term care, mostly were negative feedback, the Board felt they needed more information and insight about the topic and how care is being handled in long-term before approving the increase.

Josh Tinkle, vice-president of operations with UnityPoint at Home Care talked with the Board about moving their program from a parent program to a branch program to provide for more expertise and knowledge from a network rather than on an individual basis.  The Board took no action on the topic.