Hospital sees admissions rise in 2014

Washington Regional looks to add jobs, expand services

FAYETTEVILLE -- Washington Regional Medical Center is looking forward to a banner year with new jobs and expanded services, its top executive told Washington County officials.

"If there's a theme this year, it's been growth," CEO Bill Bradley told the Quorum Court last month during his annual report on the nonprofit hospital to the community, which is required by law. The center employs 2,200 people and "we expect to add at least a couple hundred more in the next 18 months," Bradley said.

Fast Facts

Washington Regional Medical Center Revenue

• 2011: $203 million ($13 million net after expenses)

• 2012: $240 million ($33 million net)

• 2013: $235 million ($31 million net)

Source: GuideStar

The growth is being driven by a surging number of patients, Bradley said. Arkansas hospitals saw on average 1.5 percent more admissions in 2014 over the year before, he said, and for the country, the figure was 2 percent. Washington Regional clocked in at 9 percent.

A growing senior population -- along with a growing population overall -- is responsible, he said. The hospital's Neuroscience Institute opened last August, partly to tackle Arkansas' particularly high stroke rates.

"We don't even have the women's expansion done, so it's not babies," Bradley said, referring to a $55 million expansion to obsetetrics and gynecology services that began last winter and is expected to be finished late next year. About 125 people will work in that expanded clinic.

Bradley's comments marked a sharp contrast to late 2013, when he announced employees' pay would be frozen and spending would be cut by $5 million a year. He blamed Congressional spending cuts for pushing earnings down $5 million in 2013. The hospital brought in $235 million in revenue before expenses that year, the latest publicly available figures.

"The uncertain, unpredictable and increasingly hostile environment for health care emanating from Washington makes it exceedingly difficult to plan and budget," Bradley wrote. "For some time, we have shared our view that 2013, 2014 and 2015 would be the most difficult years of the health care reform era. We continue to hold that view as 2013 comes to a close."

Bradley specifically pointed to two areas of cuts: The Affordable Care Act included trims to Medicaid, but difficulties early on with federal and some state insurance exchanges led to fewer new customers than expected to offset those cuts. Meanwhile, the mandatory spending cuts known as the sequester further trimmed hospital reimbursements.

Last July, the hospital eliminated 27 positions, for which reimbursement cuts were again blamed.

The pay freeze ended this year, Bradley said in an email, but federal spending cuts are still in effect, and potential "reforms to reform" in the near future could take away the reform's benefits.

"The reason Washington Regional was able to have a negligible reaction of only a 1% reduction, reducing 27 positions affecting 13 people, was by being focused on operating expenses prior to 2014 in anticipation of reform, including areas beyond simply labor costs," he wrote. "With the pace of change in healthcare today, adjusting by 'expanding and contracting' is only natural."

The past year or so has brought a mix of expansion and trouble to other area hospitals as well.

Mercy Health, which includes hospitals in Arkansas and several other states, announced between 300 and 350 layoffs last month throughout its system, a year after it announced 200 to 300 layoffs. And yet, Mercy Northwest Arkansas opened a 24-hour emergency clinic in Bella Vista and plans to expand its Rogers emergency room to 27 beds, up from 18.

"That just keeps picking up and going faster," Eric Pianalto, president of Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas, said at the time. "We will immediately start planning for another wave of expansion because we are going to outpace this expansion."

Pianalto said the area was on pace for 10 percent to 15 percent growth. Two spokeswomen didn't return messages requesting comment last week.

Northwest Health System is also doing well, CEO Sharif Omar said in a phone interview. The system had about 10 percent growth in admissions and surgeries last year.

Willow Creek Women's Hospital in Johnson is being renovated and will start running an expanded neonatal intensive care unit in Bentonville; both projects are on track to be finished by the fall. The project to move the system's clinic on Elm Springs Road to a space twice as large is ongoing and could be finished by December or January, Omar said.

"Each one of our facilities have a little bit of a different niche," he said. "It's just a matter of continuing to press forward to delivering good health care."

NW News on 07/06/2015

Upcoming Events