Pinckneyville Hospital sees small operations loss in January

The Pinckneyville Community Hospital Board of Directors reviewed the financial information for the month of January at their regularly meeting Monday evening.

PCH had an operations loss of $6,780 and a net income of $23,050 for the month. Net income includes revenue from sources other than operations. The year to date figures are $452,372 in operating income and $924,757 in net income.

In other business, the board:

• approved a contract with ECI for emergency room staffing. Hospital Administrator Tom Hudgins said ECI contacted the hospital after their initial price quote and said they made an error in the calculations. The price went up $131,000 per year. Hudgins then contacted his second choice and was told their price had gone up $161,000 per year.

• approved a contract with Crown Linen Service for laundry pick-up and delivery. The service should begin around May 1. The new hospital will not have laundry facilities. PCH is the last hospital in the area to continue doing their own laundry. There are some concerns about the current equipment. It is fairly old and not in great shape. Switching to a service now will prevent problems in the event of equipment failure. Hudgins said he anticipates some savings right away and larger annual savings of about $35,000 in the future.

• approved a $20,532 software upgrade to the two Omnicell drug dispensing computers at the hospital. The systems currently run on Windows XP. Microsoft has announced they will no longer support XP. Support is required for HIPAA compliance. The board was told to expect more software upgrades from XP to Windows 7 in the near future.

• approved price changes for the 2015 budget. PCH has completed a market price comparison. As a result, the swing bed price will increase from $260 to $273 on May 1 and the 24-hour observation room price will decrease from $698 to $695.50. All other prices remain the same.