HRRMC Master Plan a work in progress
The Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center (HRRMC) Board of Directors was presented with an opportunity to direct the growth of district facilities in the future on Tuesday.
Mike Malloy, with RTA Architects of Colorado Springs made the presentation, envisioning the needs of the district as it plans for more potential expansion of services for the critical access rural hospital district.
While the new facility Master Plan is still far from complete, Allison Gergley, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, said the plan would explore and identify a combination of critical site development projects, interior improvements and upgrades to the existing facility; strategic building additions, future outpatient medical office buildings and required mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP) and civil engineering infrastructure improvements.
“As we continue to expand services in our community and surrounding counties, we see the demand for those services increase, and that means long-term planning on how to best serve our patients, community and service districts well into the future,” said Gergley.
“A majority of the Master Plan is focused on enhancements for the hospital building itself. The future outpatient medical office buildings may be considered to accommodate more specialists and providers as a new building. We are also still working on solidifying the location for the Hospitality House and Employee Housing building, which will also be a new building constructed once we get all architectural plans for that finalized. From my understanding, there are no plans at this time to add on to the Outpatient Pavilion,” she added.
Main Goals for the HRRMC Board from Mike Malloy, AIA
- Identify key hospital and clinic space used to accommodate expanding hospital staff as hospital services expanded over the last 10 years. This could mean restoring and/or re-envisioning existing functional areas of the hospital that were underestimated in the original design (from 2008) due to unexpected growth and increased patient census.
- Increase patient and staff parking areas, as it has been a challenge to keep up with accommodating all as the hospital and Outpatient Pavilion has seen growth in staff, patient services, and patient census. They will also identify best traffic flow for patients/visitors, staff, and vendor drop-off/pick up.
- Improve, expand, and remodel existing areas of the hospital. HRRMC has experienced aspects of inefficiency, capacity, and operational pinch-points, particularly at registration, surgery, imaging services, patient observation, and the Emergency Department. Even materials management (supplies flow, vendor and equipment pick-up and drop off, loading docks, etc.) has been impacted.
- Expansion of new and desired medical service lines, services, and physicians’ groups.
- Maintain and enhance patient and family satisfaction and confidence.
- Optimize and enhance both new and existing staff work environments, medical services provided and staff retention and success.
Gergley pointed out the board has yet to digest and give feedback on the Master Plan goal areas in what will be a work in progress.
CEO and Financial Reports
CEO Bob Morasko reported to the board that he had been approached by the First Street Family Practice about employment with HRRMC. He said staff and the leadership team are developing plans to accommodate the request.
He said two cost estimates have been received from local contractors regarding employee housing and a hospitality house for patient families. The Facilities team and HRRMC Foundation are exploring locating the facility to a lot near Solvista Health and the Rocky Mountain Eye Center on campus, which could potentially save more than $350,000 in utility services.
In other board action Tuesday, retiring Vice President of Fiscal Services Lesley Fagerberg reported a good financial picture for the district through the first quarter of 2023.
Morasko made a point of recognizing Fagerberg’s long professional service to the district, saying, “She has been rock-solid with HRRMC for over 20 years.”
Fagerberg reported gross patient revenues for the January-March period were $70,048,261 compared with the budget estimate of $66,274,821. Minus deductions, net patient revenue through March totaled $30,602,764 against the budget estimate of $31,207,997.
Other operating revenue of $1,480,888 versus the budget estimate of $1,430,154 bring the total operating revenues to $32,083,652 – just under the budget estimate of $32,838,151.
Total operating expenses were pegged at $20,115,309 against the budget estimate of $20,405,415.
The increase in net position totaled $2,883,892 versus a budget estimate of $2,428,337.
For the month of March, Fagerberg noted 271 total patient days versus the budget estimate of 295, and compared to the last three-month average of 246 patient days.
March outpatient, dialysis and clinic visits were 16,610 compared to the budget figure of 14,486 and February visits of 12,361.
Importantly, total patient service revenues were $24,021,791 for the month and $70,048,61 for the year to date, against budget estimates of $23,032,853 and $66,274,821 respectively.
Inpatient revenues were at $2,012,979 for March and $6,343,390 year-to-date compared with outpatient revenues of $22,008,811 for the month and $63,704,871 year-to-date.
Days of cash on hands listed at 223; 154 days are short-term and 69 days are long-term.
HRRMC Foundation Updates
HRRMC Foundation Director Lezlie Burkley reported the 2023 Cancer Walk has registrations open for the event April 29. Participation costs $30 and the program will begin at 8:30 a.m. while the walk from the campus itself will begin at 9:00 a.m.
She also said a grant application is being prepared for the Colorado Health Care Policy and Financing grant program, requesting $650,000 for the HRRMC wound care center.
Capital Requests Approved
In other action, the board approved capital purchases including two Ortho Diagnostics Vitros 7600 test systems at a cost of $510,535; monitors and signage for the hospital and clinics at a cost of $49,449; 54 desktop replacement computers at $52,500; seven La-Z-Boy patient medical recliner chairs at $23,192; a four-module Cepheid PCR disease analyzer at $60,900; and a new pharmacy management system for the Custer County Clinic in Westcliffe at $27,975.
Also approved was a revision in the previously approved purchase of an Endoscope Video and Tower System, apparently involving a vendor quote error, from $578,232 to $652,827.
Featured image: HRRMC Dan Smith photo
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