Quincy Valley Medical Center free of debt to Grant County
The Quincy Valley Medical Center no longer owes money to Grant County, a process that hospital officials said was made possible by community support and close attention to the bottom line.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald
After years of effort, Quincy Valley Medical Center has paid off its debt to Grant County. The hospital had used interest-accruing warrants, a type of loan, to cover expenses.
QUINCY — For years Quincy Valley Medical Center commissioners and hospital officials have been working to pay back the debt QVMC owes to Grant County. Those efforts have paid off - literally.
“In November of 2021 we were notified that all warrants have been redeemed,” said Hospital administrator Glenda Bishop. “And since that time we have not had a negative warrant balance.”
The hospital district had to borrow money from the county to pay expenses, a process called interest-bearing warrants. Grant County Treasurer Darryl Pheasant said QVMC had been using warrants, off and on, since at least 2001.
Bishop said QVMC no longer is using warrants.
Interest-bearing warrants are issued by junior taxing districts when they don’t have enough cash on hand to meet their obligations. The district borrows money from the county to pay its bills, then pays the money back with interest.
Quincy hospital’s debt to Grant County was about $2.5 million as of February 2021, Pheasant said. As of the end of February 2022, the last month for which information is available, QVMC had a positive balance of about $262,000, he said, putting them in the black.
“It’s not been just one single thing,” Bishop said. “It’s been strategic, and it’s required a lot of attention and monitoring, and really staying focused on that goal.”
Bishop said QVMC paid off its warrant debt with a combination of community support, expanding services and working to increase revenue and cut expenses.
Hospital district voters approved maintenance and operations levies in 2018, 2020 and 2021. Bishop said the levy approvals were crucial to cutting the debt.
“Those levies are extremely important to the work we are committed to doing. The support of our community through those levies actually added up to about 35% of the warrant line debt,” Bishop said. “We are extremely grateful to the community for their help.”
Hospital officials also worked to find services that Quincy-area residents needed and would use. Bishop said one example is QVMC’s physical therapy department, which offers treatment for a variety of conditions from head (neck pain) to toe (ankle injuries). Another expanded service is Sageview Family Medicine, with a physician and three nurse practitioners providing primary care.
Sageview is a rural health clinic, which means its reimbursement rate is different for Medicare and Medicaid patients than clinics without that designation, Bishop said.
Hospital officials also kept a close eye on the bottom line.
“We were paying close attention through revenue cycle monitoring, closely watching our revenue versus expenses,” Bishop said.
The Quincy area is growing, and Bishop said it’s the intention of QVMC officials that the hospital will grow with it.
“It’s about continuing to assess the community’s healthcare needs and being willing to adjust to that,” she said.
