|
HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > ALLIANCE MEDICAL CENTER 'TURNING SHIP AROUND'
Article published - November 20, 2007
Credit: SONOMA WEST TIMES
Alliance Medical Center ‘turning ship around'
By Kerrie Russell, Tribune Editor
Officials say audit will show positive numbers
Officials at the Alliance Medical Center say they are “turning the ship around” after a financial crisis caused them to cut staff and tighten finances during the last six months.
Alliance Chief Executive Officer Jack Neureuter says there's money in the bank and the small medical staff is increasing production to help cover costs. Meanwhile, the clinic continues negotiations with the city of Healdsburg's Redevelopment Agency (RDA) in hopes of foregoing lease payments for the next year and half to help build up the clinic's reserves.
The non-profit clinic, which has 14,000 patients, has been meeting with city representatives since July after a late state budget and unrecovered funds from the state put them in crisis mode.
But, Neureuter said, the $600,000 the clinic was waiting for came in and a financial audit will show a surplus for the fiscal year.
The audit is expected to be approved by the clinic's board on Nov. 28.
But, the CEO said the budget remains tight and talks are ongoing for help from the RDA.
At a City Council meeting in October Neureuter asked the RDA for “loan assistance” and restructuring of rent payments. Alliance's proposal was to pay a reduced rent of $1,000 a month (instead of its $9,945 lease payment) through September 2008 and that past due rent would be repaid with half the interest rate over the following 288 months.
The council, acting as the board of the RDA, formed a sub-committee to evaluate the clinic's finances before agreeing to a restructured lease. The city asked for monthly and annual financial documents, which were handed to the city in the time requested, Neureuter said.
“We gave them all the data they wanted,” he said. When asked if the clinic could make the payments to the city, Neureuter said, “Could we pay them? Yes. But it would bring our reserves down and we would be in the hole for any unknown things out of our scope.”
City Councilmember Jim Wood, who is on the sub-committee formed by the city said they received all of the requested documents, which are currently being packaged for the committee's review.
“They've been very cooperative,” Wood said. He said he plans to attend the audit meeting next week and hopes to have a better idea of the situation after that.
“I honestly believe these are good people, they feel strong about what they're doing and I believe there's a sincere effort to want to work this out.”
Neureuter said that through all of this, the clinic continues to see the same number of patients, even with fewer doctors. “Doctors who were seeing two rooms, are now seeing three and medical assistants are doing more,” he said.
The clinic also had to raise the co-pays and make sure it wasn't treating patients out of the service area who lived in places where there were other clinics available to them.
“We had to get tougher,” he said, “Our mission is to not turn people away, but our mission is also to stay in business.
“This year, we're going to turn the ship around. We don't want to run into the same challenge we did in April. It's got the attention of our board, our staff and myself. We're running a tight ship.”
|
