Samaritan finances affected by COVID-19 outbreak

MOSES LAKE — Samaritan Healthcare of Moses Lake made some money in November 2020, but the coronavirus outbreak continues to affect its finances.

Chief administrative officer Alex Town said Samaritan finished with $495,809 in net income in November.

For the year through the end of November, Samaritan logged $2.94 million in net income. During the same period in 2019, Samaritan had about $6.9 million in net income.

Town said inpatient revenue and patient utilization during November 2020 was lower than the budget projection in obstetrics, medical and surgical admissions. He attributed the drop to the coronavirus pandemic.

The hospital’s “case mix index” was up significantly in November. The case mix index measures how sick patients were. A higher case mix index means patients in the hospital had more serious illnesses.

Town said outpatient revenue was lower than projected in the 2020 budget for November. The number of outpatient surgeries was lower.

In addition, a number of doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners were not working in November due to the pandemic. That also affected revenue at the two Samaritan clinics, which was below budget projections for the month.

While November expenses were below budget projections, the costs for temporary staffing increased, Town said. Hospital officials were required to hire temporary nurses, since the hospital had about a dozen vacancies on its nursing staff, he said. Hospital officials also needed to hire temporary emergency room physicians and hospitalists.

During 2020 through the end of November, Samaritan provided about $6.5 million in uncompensated care (charity care and uncollectible debt for care).