Elbert Memorial Hospital’s (EMH) 2015 audit reflects improvement concerning all economic health areas, but it also reflects nearly a $1 million deficit, according to EMH Chief Financial Officer Kelly Cox.
Cox told the EMH Authority Board in the authority’s monthly meeting last week that Dixon-Hughes-Goodman accounting firm indicated that EMH received a “clean” audit.
Cox said the authority would receive a printed version of the audit this week and that the audit would also be released to the newspaper.
The auditors said there were no disagreements in the accounting provided by EMH financial staff for the audit.
The audit reflected improvements in cash flow, according to EMH Authority Chairman Daniel Graves, and Graves took an opportunity during the review of the audit to “publicly” thank AnMed Health for its assistance in keeping the hospital afloat.
“I’d like to say ‘thank you’ to AnMed for what they have done to assist this hospital,” said Graves. “They have allowed us to keep working to grow the revenue and grow this business.”
Graves added that in prior years the auditor would not perform the audit without pre-payment.
The authority voted to set aside more funding for the 2016 audit at the meeting last Tuesday.
The “good” signs from the audit, said Cox, are numbers that show the hospital is improving on the bottom line in 2016 and the hospital’s ability to increase the number of days it has “cash on hand.”
As of last month the hospital was showing an operating loss of $86,800 as compared to the final operating loss of $142,000 in 2015, said Cox.
And in the category of days cash on hand, EMH reached 30.3 days, which Cox said the hospital hasn’t reached in three years.
In categories where the hospital can cut expenses, Cox said EMH has been successful.
“The key now is for the hospital to increase utilization,” said Cox.
Last month the hospital was involved in helping open a clinic with former EMH physician Dr. Louis Fernandez and this month the authority board authorized the signing of a “sleep lab” contract with AnMed Health.
In the current fiscal year the hospital has received more than $88,000 in special purpose local option sales taxes, $45,000 in local option sales taxes and $396,000 in property tax funds to offset charity costs.