If it weren’t for two sizable grants, Allen County’s hospital would be in a world of hurt.
The hospital received $518,00 through the federal government’s recent CARES Act and another $100,000 from the state of Kansas.
“Thanks to those two grants we came close to breaking even,” for the month of April, said Larry Peterson at Tuesday night’s board of trustees meeting.
As it is, the month came out in the red by $38,000, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Hopefully, we have bottomed out,” Peterson said.
The hospital’s policy of deferring all elective surgeries kept a lot of people away, he said. For April, the hospital had only 19 admissions, about half of what it could normally expect. The same was for visits to the emergency room, 287 visits compared to the previous month’s 440.
Average daily census — those who stay overnight — was 1.8, compared to a normal rate of seven or eight. Numbers at the hospital’s clinic on South Washington Street were down by one-third.
“The numbers are beginning to come back slowly,” he said.
PETERSON has been handling the duties of chief executive officer for the past nine months in addition to his duties as chief financial officer at Allen County Regional Hospital.
Not that he’s counting the days, but it’s probably not an exaggeration to say Peterson will be first in line to bump elbows with incoming CEO Elmore Patterson when he takes the reins July 1, when Saint Luke’s Medical System assumes the management of ACRH.
During their meeting Tuesday, board members met virtually with Patterson. He and his wife and two children are currently in Montgomery, Ala.
Patterson has a military and business background.
Equipped with a business and marketing degree from Savannah State University in 2000, he then earned a master of health administration from Armstrong Atlantic State University in 2003. Patterson served in the U.S. Army for the next seven years working in health services. Since then he has worked in the administrations of private hospitals and nursing homes and municipal health systems.
He shares his insights about service and healthcare through a blog he writes at elmerpatterson.com.
THE HOSPITAL remains off-limits to visitors, said Patty McGuffin, chief nursing operator.
That may change soon, she said, noting she was to meet with Rebecca Johson of the Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Department today.
