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.
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.
The hospital cost report ranked all Critical Access Hospitals by net income. Humboldt General Hospital posted a gain of $7,613,370. In comparison, the list's top income-getter was Martha's Vineyard Hospital, which posted a gain of $38,167,392. The no. 25 position is held by Nor-Lea General Hospital in Lovington, N.M., with a net income of 7,393,101.
This is the second time Humboldt General Hospital has been singled out for its financial stability.
Since Fiscal Year 2008, LarsonAllen LLP, the hospital's auditor, has included HGH among the top 35 Critical Access Hospitals in the nation.
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 were encouraged by this favorable news," he said.
Parrish said his goal in coming to Winnemucca 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."
Parrish said he wanted to stabilize the facility's bottom line by eliminating debt and building up Humboldt General Hospital's number of days of cash on hand. Days of cash on hand - the amount of money used to fund daily operations - is an important measure of a hospital's short- and long-term financial stability.
A hospital in solid financial health should have at minimum 90 to 100 days of cash on hand. Humboldt General has more than 200.
"So a poor performing organization can create a vicious circle for a community," said Parrish. "Low cash can lead to layoffs, which leads to cut services, which leads to fewer patients, which leads to even lower cash."
He continued, "Our goal - and I think we're accomplishing it - is to create an upward spiral where our cash on hand creates the opposite effect, where it ensures a stable and healthy workforce, expanded services, more patients and increased financial stability."
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 ranking on the most recent CMS Hospital Cost Report, please call Humboldt General Hospital at (775) 623-5222, ext. 123.
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