By PETER HUSSMANN
Skiff Medical Center employees won't be receiving pay increases or cost of living adjustments as was usual come each July 1 due to the hospital's struggling financial condition.
Skiff's board of trustees today agreed with Interim CEO Francie Jahn's recommendation that salary hikes would not be part of next fiscal year's budget considering the city-owned hospital has operational losses for the year approaching $2 million.
Jahn told the board she wrangled over whether it would be feasible to provide employees with pay increases next fiscal year but in the end told the trustees that she "would not recommend" that salary increases be included in the pending budget.
Trustee John Lee commiserated with the position the decision places employees but noted that a number of other central Iowa companies have also made the same decision and even cut back on employees' hours.
Board member Nancy Noth said it was a "hard decision," but hoped the hospital's finances would improve to the point that raises could once again be offered.
"I hope we can turn this around," she said.
What needs turning is the hospital's $1.7 million year-to-date operational loss, a figure that is $1 million ahead of the losses the hospital incurred at the same point in the last fiscal year. For 2008, Skiff recorded total losses of $1.3 million. There are three months left in this fiscal year.
Interim Chief Financial Officer David Brokaw pointed out a few bright spots in March's budget, which recorded losses of $91,000 compared to a combined $530,000 in January and February, including a $1 million increase in gross revenues and a large increase in medical/surgical procedures - primarily attributed to Dr. Ron Charles' return to practice in Newton.
Brokaw, who recently retired after 30 years as CFO at the Creston hospital, also told the board about his efforts to decrease the amount of time it takes Skiff to bill for procedures and stepped up efforts to make collections on unpaid accounts. He said he plans to hire a collections firm to attempt to lower the amount the hospital write's off in bad debt. With Gene Williamson's pending departure from the finance department, Brokaw is also working diligently to complete the coming fiscal year's budget, which the board is expected to receive at next month's meeting, the board was told.
In other action today, the trustees, with member Gary Kahn recusing himself, approved a $2,500 donation to the Newton Development Corporation, down from previous year's gifts of $10,000.
While noting the benefits the hospital receives from NDC's efforts at bringing new business to the community, board members said the $10,000 donation request from the NDC was beyond their means at this time.
"We benefit from the new business the NDC brings, but I don't see why we need to be the largest donor, or one of the largest," said trustee Jeff King, also noting the board's previous decision to freeze hospital employees' salaries as a factor in the decision to substantially lower the donation.
Recent Comments