Hospital's health improving, official says

Thanks to a partnership with a Tampa-based group, Helen Ellis hospital has stopped the losses that plagued it a year ago.

By KATHERINE GAZELLA

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 9, 2001

TARPON SPRINGS -- At this time last year, Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital was in a dire financial situation.

Even though voters had approved an affiliation with Tampa-based University Community Hospital, financial losses continued to mount.

But this year, with the affiliation well in place, finances have been steadied at the once-troubled facility, hospital officials said this week.

"To be where we're at after nine months, we think is pretty good," said Norm Stein, president of UCH. "We've stabilized what I think was a very difficult situation."

The hospital had a $1-million loss in the first quarter of the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, he said. Since then, it has broken even, which is far better than the losses that occurred almost every month before UCH took over the hospital.

Through the end of June, the hospital lost about $1-million for the current fiscal year and did not foresee any further losses. By the end of June last year, the hospital had lost $2.3-million, with no end in sight.

The hospital will continue with changes, including an expansion of its emergency room, Stein told city commissioners Tuesday night.

In May, volunteers at the hospital contributed $100,000 of the $3-million to $5-million needed to expand the emergency room from nine treatment centers to 15 or 18 treatment areas.

Occupancy averages about 100 patients daily at the hospital, which has 168 beds, said Joseph Kiefer, chief executive officer of Helen Ellis. Stein said he hopes to rebuild the trust among residents of Tarpon Springs and to increase the inpatient rates at the hospital.

The hospital laid off 12 workers this spring and placed three in other jobs, Kiefer said. No further staff cutbacks are planned, Stein said.

The hospital is projecting expenses will be $3-million less this year because it no longer has principal and interest payments on its bonds, and because of savings through group purchasing agreements and other services through UCH, spokesman Jerry Touchton said recently.

Part of the affiliation agreement stated that UCH would pay $20-million upfront to retire the hospital's bonds.

By a 10-1 ratio, voters decided last year to allow Helen Ellis to affiliate with UCH, which is leasing the hospital from the city for 40 years. City and hospital officials saw the deal as a way of saving the hospital, which at one point risked defaulting on its bonds.

UCH officially took over Sept. 1.

Since then, Stein said, Helen Ellis has performed well in economic conditions that generally are unkind to the health industry. While other hospitals are struggling, he said, Helen Ellis is going in the other direction.

"Considering the health care environment and the way things are going, I think we're doing pretty good," Stein said.

- Staff writer Katherine Gazella can be reached at (727) 445-4182.

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