Pinckneyville Hospital Execs to D.C. June 17 on New Hospital Funding

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ For the third month in a row, Pinckneyville Community Hospital posted a operating and net income. The operating income for April was $246,546 and the net income was $279,047.

PCH has also finished the fiscal year ending April 30 with an operating loss of $177,551 and a net income of $367,434, according to pre-audit figures.

"These figures are prior to the final audit," Hospital Administrator Tom Hudgins said. "We expect a positive adjustment to both numbers."

Board Chairman John Shotton noted that the expenses for the just completed fiscal year were over $1 million under budget.

Total expenses were $1.3 million under budget, including $1.1 million in salaries, Hudgins said. "The staff does a very good job of keeping expenses down."

CFO Kara Jo Carson adjusted the figures to show what the final numbers would have been if PCH had been only a hospital for the entire fiscal year. PCH operated the Skilled Care Unit during the first five months of the fiscal year in question.

Carson projected an operating income of $522,000 and a net income of $1 million.

Hudgins reported that a benchmark study conducted by Brady and Associates of Kansas City, Mo., showed that PCH is about $1 million below average for salary and benefits, as compared to the more than 130 other critical access hospitals in Brady's database.

That is the full-time equivalent of 20 fewer employees. Hudgins said that these figures, along with other background information and market analysis will be discussed June 17 when about a dozen representatives of the hospital meet with the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C.

If all goes well at that meeting, PCH will be asked to complete the HUD 242 application which would guarantee the loan to build a new hospital.

Hudgins, Carson, several board members, the architect, the construction manager and representatives from the financing and audit firms for the proposed new hospital will attend the meeting in the nation's capitol.

The outcome of that meeting will determine whether or not the hospital moves forward with a certificate of need for a new hospital. Without the HUD 242 loan, the project will not go forward.

The certificate of need must be filed by June 26, along with a $2,500 application fee, in order to get a hearing before the Health Facilities Planning Board in November.

The board will then have one year to pay the remainder of the application fee, which will be $97,500. The application fee is a percentage of the proposed project up to $100,000.