CHI St. Vincent Health System, which has hospitals in Little Rock, Hot Springs, Sherwood and Morrilton, had operating earnings of $45.6 million for its fiscal year that ended June 30, the hospital system said.
The largest hospital for St. Vincent, a part of Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives, is the 615-bed CHI St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock.
Operating earnings exclude interest, depreciation, amortization and restructuring.
The earnings were up from an operating loss of $46.7 million in fiscal 2013, according to St. Vincent's 2013 financial form filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
St. Vincent had more than $650 million in net patient revenue in the year that ended June 30, up from about $382 million the previous year.
The big increase in revenue was related to St. Vincent's purchase of Mercy Hot Springs hospital and a physician clinic this year, Peter Banko, chief executive officer of the hospital system, said Friday. Mercy Hot Springs hospital was renamed St. Vincent Hot Springs.
It "was a rough year for us," Banko said. "We implemented our electronic medical records and did some changes in the revenue cycle, which affected our performance. This was a nice rebound this year. The acquisition of the hospital in Hot Springs really helped our financial performance and helped our system as a whole."
The turnaround could also be attributed to the hospital's "strategy of focusing on the quality, experience and safety of our patient care, on strong physician relationships and being the low cost provider in the market," Banko said in a prepared statement.
St. Vincent is still in a partnership and acquisition mode, Banko said in the interview.
"We have some talks going on now with Conway Regional [Medical Center]," Banko said. "It's not an acquisition, but we would be an equal partnership where we would be doing some things together."
There is a confidentiality agreement with the Conway hospital, Banko said, so he declined to talk about it in detail.
"But we're going to try to improve quality of care, reduce costs and grow the business together," Banko said.
St. Vincent employs about 4,500 systemwide, including approximately 250 physicians.
Consolidation in the hospital industry has continued since the mid-1990s, said Alwyn Cassil, an independent health care consultant in Washington, D.C.
"In the last couple of years, in the wake of health care reform, there is certainly interest in large hospitals adding to their systems and for smaller hospitals wanting to be a part of a larger organization," Cassil said.
Business on 10/11/2014