Hospital Board of Directors Approve 2020 Budgets

The Howard Memorial Hospital Board of Directors approved the capital and operating budgets for 2020 during a meeting held on Tuesday. Chief Financial Officer Bill Craig outlined several priority projects and expected expenses to be incurred during the hospital’s new budget year. The operating budget reflects a slight increase in volume.

“Our capital budget is set at $1.9 million, with 82 percent of that for clinical. On the operations side we are looking at 950 emergency department visits per month for budget 2020 and an average daily census on our in-patient unit of 8.4 patients per day. We are budgeted for a loss of around $260,000 for budget 2020. I appreciate our board of directors and finance committee for working with me on the budget. I think we have a good budget that we will be able to adhere to.”

The bottom line net income figure totaled a loss of $264,932 after a 1.8 million reduction from depreciation expenses of $150,000 a month. CFO Craig noted the increase in emergency department visits, averaging about 920 visits per month during the current fiscal year. While inpatient numbers have dropped from prior months, Craig reported during the monthly financial report that the cash in bank exceeds $7.1 million. Employee health insurance costs are $52,291 below budget in August 2019. The emergency department set a record breaking 1,010 visits during the month ending August 31st.

The capital budget includes funding of one million dollars to update radiology equipment and several technology upgrades to protect the hospital from future ransomware attacks. The board of directors approved the budgets with a unanimous vote.