CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. - Cibola County officials and Cibola General Hospital signed two contracts in 2020. One was the lease agreement for the two properties in Grants on Roosevelt Avenue which are owned by the county the hospital and the Cibola Family Health Center. The other was an operating agreement that stipulated providing the county commission with bi-annual reports.
(The operating agreement no longer requires CGH to comply with the Open Meetings Act, according to officials. The public can access monthly board meetings via the hospital’s teleconferencing system, explained Cynthia Tena, CGH marketing director.)
The CGH report at the commission’s Feb. 25 meeting was the first one as stipulated in the new operating agreement. The presentation by CEO Thomas Whelan highlighted the accomplishments and identified ongoing challenges.
The hospital had budgeted $7,699,954 for revenue for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2020-21, July 1 - Sept. 30. Actual income was $6,688,394. The revenue data changed dramatically for the second quarter, Oct. 1- Dec. 31; CGH had budgeted $8,349,586 but generated $10,420,507.
Operating expenses were higher than anticipated. First quarter expenditures were projected to be $8,279,405 but actual costs were $9,154,361. The second quarter data reported $8,822,925 for anticipated operating expenses but $9,596,166 was the final number.
The 25-bed facility admitted 185 patients during the first quarter which resulted in 506 in-patient days, 22 percent; that rose to 41.5 percent, or 954 inpatient days, by the end of the second quarter.
Outpatient visits increased from 4,555 for the first quarter to 5,213 for the second three-month period. The number of surgical procedures also grew from 153 to 224 during that same period.
The hospital receives reimbursement from the county through the Indigent Fund. The CEO said that CGH spent $103,225 of the $150,000 budgeted for the first quarter and $84,135 of the $150,000 budgeted for the second quarter. The Indigent Fund pays for healthcare services to those incarcerated at CCCC in Milan and those detained at county detention center.
The hospital routinely budgets $660,000, divided into $330,000 for each quarter, in revenue from the ongoing mill levy for the first six months of each fiscal year. The hospital collected $109,126 for the first quarter and $413,600 by the end of the second quarter of the previous fiscal year but had received only $94,101 by Sept. 30 plus an additional $23,314 by Dec. 31 of the current fiscal year.
December’s operations resulted in a slight excess of revenue above expenditures. The hospital posted a $300,000 profit and invested $1.2 million in capital improvements for the six months that just ended, according to CFO Jim Hermes at the Feb. 22 CGH board meeting.
The number of fulltime-equivalent employees rose from 191.1 at the end of September to 206.4 by Dec. 31. This includes Cibola Family Health Center Clinic Manager Brenda Newell, who began her duties on Nov. 16, 2020.
Co-Chief Nursing Officers Glenna Losito and Maria Antencio reported at the Jan. 25 board meeting that the hospital had recently hired one nurse, offered contracts to two others, and had three contract nurses on staff.
CFO Hermes gave a financial update at that same meeting. He reported that Cash-On-Hand remained stable and the hospital’s liquidity represented approximately 272 days of operating expenses. The number of patients participating in the self-pay billing program changed from 2.9 percent in FY 2019 to 5.3 percent in the past 18 months. He noted that start-up costs for the Orthopedic Services program and the Electronic Medical Record training were responsible for operating costs exceeding budget projections.
Call 505-290-1025, or email cynthia tena@cibolahospital.com, for more information.
More information
• Average number of minutes patients waited in the ER, 224, compared to state average, 301, and national, 282 minutes.
• Time spent in the ER before admission to CGH as a patient, 212 minutes; state average 106, and national average 102 minutes.
• Average time spent in ER before seeing a healthcare professional, 14 minutes, compared to state, 22, and national, 20 minutes.
• Amount of time waiting for pain medication after ER admission for broken bones, 34, compared to state average, 54, and national, 49 minutes.
Cibola General Hospital scores:
• Readmission: Same as the national average
• Patient experience: Same as the national average
• Timeliness of Care: Same as the national average
• Efficient Use of Medical Imaging: Same as the national average
No statistics were listed for Mortality, Safety of Care, and Timeliness of Care.
The 25-bed hospital in Grants has been designated as a Medicare Certified Critical Access Hospital and received a 3-star rating on the 5-star ranking system on the summary of quality measures. This indicates the hospital has an average rating compared to other hospitals nationwide. The data is provided by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, according to https://healthcarecomps.com/hospitals/nm/321308/.