Murray Medical Center doing well on its own

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From left are Murray Medical Center Chief Financial Officer Nick Townsend, CEO Roy Orr and Chief Nursing Officer Susan Longley.

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October 7, 2012

Murray Medical Center doing well on its own

Charles Oliver charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Sun Oct 07, 2012, 09:03 AM EDT

CHATSWORTH — Eight months after taking Murray Medical Center independent, hospital officials say the move is working out as they’d hoped.

“I’m very happy with where we are,” said Murray County Hospital Authority Chairman Randall Richards.

Murray Medical Center separated from Hamilton Health Care System, which had managed it since 1988, in February. Hospital authority officials hoped they could improve the facility’s financial situation. The hospital had been losing money as recently as 2010 when it cut 16 positions to cut costs.

“We are basically at a break even point now,” said Murray Medical Center CEO Roy Orr.

Through September, he said, the hospital has had total revenue of $26.8 million and net revenue of $6.1 million. The difference between total revenue and net revenue is basically adjustments for money the hospital will not collect.

“That’s what we have to do, and it’s not just us. Hospitals always collect cents on the dollar,” said Orr, who has 41 years experience in hospital administration.

Meanwhile, expenses have been running at around $1 million each month.

“Our expenses have been running right at $255,000 per month less than what Hamilton was running. We are very excited about that,” Orr said. “We haven’t changed our operations that much. It’s almost all due to lower overhead. Our supply costs are running a little bit less.”

Orr said that the administrative staff is essentially him and two other people.

“Our (emergency room) and our outpatient are doing very well,” Orr said. “On an annual basis, we’ll see about 19,000 patients in our ER. We’ll see about 15,000 outpatients. The challenge is our inpatient. We’ll probably admit 500 inpatient this year.”

Orr said Murray has benefited from a tax on net hospital revenues the Georgia General Assembly passed two years ago to subsidize funding for hospital services for Medicaid patients, though he did not have precise numbers.

“We are a net gainer from that. We are pleased with it. Some hospitals aren’t pleased with it, but because of our population it is a good deal for us,” he said.

Orr said Medicare accounts for 43.6 percent of patients at the hospital, Medicaid accounts for 18.3 percent, self pay is 19.3 percent and commercial insurance is 18.8 percent.

That tax expires next year.

Orr said the hospital today is financially viable and serving the community the way officials had hoped it would.

“We would not be where we are today without the help of the county commissioner (Greg Hogan) and his finance director Tommy Parker,” Orr said. “When we separated from Hamilton, we did not have any cash. When you change management, you have to jump through several hoops, and it takes several months to bill Medicare and Medicaid. (Hogan and Parker) did several things. First, they subsidize the ambulance operation, and they brought us that money on Day 1, so we had some cash. Second, they co-signed a line of credit for us, so we had some operating capital. They secured our debt to Hamilton, and they re-guaranteed the bonds.”

The hospital authority owes about $6.1 million in bonds issued six years ago to pay for an expansion of its emergency room, and Orr says the hospital is earning enough revenue to pay off that debt.

“We make two payments a year, a bond payment and an interest payment. The bond payment we make in March for about $400,000. In September, we make an interest payment of $150,000,” he said.

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Murray Medical Center doing well on its own

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