Steve Garbacz, The Commercial Review
There was no April Fools punch line in the Jay County Hospital's financial report Wednesday night.
Hospital chief financial officer Don Michael started his report by saying February "really wasn't a good month" as he went to show that hospital volumes were well below the month's budgeted values. In about the past four months, JCH has seen those numbers slipping.
"Almost every department was under budget except x-ray," Michael said.
Admissions were down 23 percent compared to last year and emergency room visits were down 27 percent. The hospital collected $4.44 million in revenues during the month, 10 percent under budget. Expenses, however, also dipped by 7 percent, but Michael said although they're cutting costs due to less activity, most of the expense comes in unavoidable areas such as depreciation.
In total, the slide in activity at the hospital resulted in a net loss of $50,720.
"Utilization of services has fallen off in the first quarter of this year," said hospital CEO Joe Johnston. "A lot of that can be contributed to the downturn in the economy."
Johnston said the downward trend is being experienced across the state as people are watching their money, causing both rural and metropolitan areas to feel the economic shockwave.
"We're seeing some discretion from our patients," he said and noted, "We're doing what we can to weather the storm."