BRHS came out $3.2 million worse than expected in 2010 | Eastern NC Now

    At the end of the month, Beaufort Regional Health System will close the books on fiscal-year 2010 and hire an auditor to review the numbers. Already, BRHS Chief Finance Officer Chris Riggs is reporting a loss for the year of $1.8 million. After the audit, this number could change. For fiscal-year 2009, Riggs reported a $300,000 loss, which, after the audit, turned into a $1.5 million loss.

    At the last BRHS Authority Board of Commissioners meeting on Aug. 31, Riggs said that he had anticipated a surplus of $1.5 million for 2010, which means he was off by $3.2 million. That same day he presented the budget for fiscal-year 2011, which predicted a loss of $700,000. Anything could happen.

    "Needless to say, this was a very challenging and daunting experience, and given the uncertainties that we face in the coming year, it was very hard for us, as a group, to put what we felt like was realistic for this hospital to attain," said BRHS Chief Executive Officer Susan Gerard in regards to compiling a budget for 2011.

    All members of the BRHS Authority Board of Commissioners seem to agree that the primary reason for the income shortfall in 2010 was the loss in patient volume. Many of them blame the BRHS-employed doctors for not taking on their market share. BRHS Authority Board Chairwoman Alice Mills Sadler said, at the Aug. 31 meeting, that she was concerned that doctors are referring patients to Greenville practices and to Pitt County Memorial Hospital for services that Beaufort County Medical Center can provide.

    "We speak in terms of people not using the facility. I don't think the hospital is a place where people just walk up to the door and say 'treat me.' The doctors have to recommend for them to be here, they have to admit them," said Sadler.

    She pointed to fact that there were 149 fewer surgeries performed at BCMC's new surgical center in 2010, year over year

    "We were pretty much told: Build it and they will come," said Sadler. "And they still aren't coming, and we built it."

    Sadler's suspicions were somewhat confirmed the evening of Aug. 31 at the public hearing on BRHS's intent to affiliate with a larger institution. One of the speakers at the hearing, Derrick Davis of Washington, complained that he was sent to Greenville to undergo Roux en-Y Bypass surgery that could have been performed in Washington; however, he held BRHS administration, rather than the physicians, culpable.

    "The surgeons that do the surgery wanted to do it in Washington, but they could not," said Davis. "The previous administration of the hospital was approached in December of last year about wanting to have bariatric surgery performed there. The physicians were already credentialed."

    Davis said that the surgical office admininstrator at Pitt County Memorial Hospital told him that 80 people from the BCMC service area--including Beaufort, Hyde and Martin counties--have come to PCMH since Jan. 2010, for Roux en-Y Bypass surgery, at a conservative estimate of profit of $1.2 million.

    Later, at the hearing, Tom Nicholson, the longest serving physician in Beaufort County, said he was bewildered by Davis's story.

    "I think this example of somebody coming and wanting to do surgery over here, and the administration turning them down, to me, is an astonishing thing," said Nicholson. "You need the business, and why we would try to do that, I just don't know."

    BRHS Chief of Staff Rachel McCarter, as representative of all BRHS physicians, expressed a different theory, at the Aug. 31 board meeting, as to the drop in patient volume. McCarter blamed the turmoil surrounding the hospital for influencing people to seek healthcare elsewhere.

    "It's the perception that the hospital is in dire troubles, so everybody's worried about coming here for surgeries," said McCarter. "I think once the situation stabilizes, and we do an aggressive marketing campaign and physicians kind of keep everybody calm, we'll see a bump in volume."

    BRHS Director of Marketing and Public Relations Pam Shadle gave examples of how she is working to increase patient volume at BCMC. She said that she is gearing all the hospital's marketing materials toward women, as the primary decision makers when it comes to making healthcare decisions for their families.

    "We believe that by focusing or marketing our OB services that we are capturing families," said Shadle. "We feel that folks who deliver their babies here have a more likely opportunity for to continue healthcare locally."