Humboldt General Hospital has once again been recognized as one of the most financially stable critical access hospitals in the nation.
The National Rural Health Association has included the local facility on its list of "Best Practice Recipients" for financial stability since 2011.
The rankings by iVantage Health Analytics are based on the hospital's percentile rank on a set of balance sheet and income statement financial ratios.
An awards ceremony will be held during the NRHA's Critical Access Hospital Conference in October in Kansas City, Missouri.
A critical access hospital is a hospital that is certified to receive cost-based reimbursement from Medicare. The reimbursement that CAHs receive is intended to improve their financial performance and thereby reduce hospital closures.
In April 2012, Humboldt General Hospital was also named one of the nation's most profitable small hospitals according to a hospital cost report released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for December 2011.
Modern Healthcare Magazine carried news of the rankings in its April 2011 issue.
Humboldt General Hospital landed at no. 22 on the list of 1,331 facilities. HGH was also the only one of 11 critical access hospitals in Nevada to make the top 25 list.
Additionally, LarsonAllen LLP, the hospital's auditor, has included HGH among its top 35 critical access hospitals in the nation every year since 2008.
Because LarsonAllen works with so many CAH hospitals, Principal Daniel Frein said his firm is in a unique position to offer comparisons between hospitals.
"We pick certain key measurements that we feel represent the fiscal strength of an organization," he said. "That's our gold standard. Then we measure each CAH hospital against that gold standard to see how well they do."
According to Frein, Humboldt General Hospital has risen to the top for several reasons, but primary among them are the hospital's unrestricted assets that can be used to grow the organization.
"We look at how much ability a facility has to reinvest in its organization," he said. "That's really the lifeblood of a rural hospital."
He continued, "With that money, you can afford better equipment, you can hire physicians, you can respond to the needs of your community."
Humboldt General Hospital CEO/Administrator Jim Parrish said without that kind of money, a hospital's ability to care for its community is compromised. "So we are encouraged by this favorable news," he said.
Parrish said his goal in coming to Winnemucca 10 years ago was to help build Humboldt General Hospital's capacity to meet the needs of its community.
"We don't want our people to have to travel to Reno for services," he said. "We also don't want our employees to wonder if they're going to get paid this week."
He added, "It's reassuring to know that we can and will continue to be able to care for our community."
For more information on Humboldt General Hospital's designation as a "Top 20 Critical Access Hospital of 2014," by the National Rural Health Association, please call Humboldt General Hospital at (775) 623-5222, ext. 1123.
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