Morehead Memorial grows in services, staff

Morehead Memorial Hospital in Eden continues to grow and recruit physicians to the area despite the growing pressures from healthcare reform and billing challenges.

Over the past year, the hospital has finished with a positive margin for the second year in a row. The hospital went from a $97,000 margin to a $418,000 operating gain.

CEO Carl Martin said the staff makes decisions based on what’s best for the patients and he’s a firm believer that if you take care of the patients, the finances will take care of themselves.

About 40 percent of the hospital’s patients are currently coming from Virginia. Martin said this can create some billing problems because, unlike North Carolina that has only one payer for Medicaid, Virginia has several businesses like the Carilion System in Roanoke. He said there are three to four companies trying to break into the Medicaid business and provide service to patients.

The hospital has seen growth in the past year in admissions, outpatient surgeries and lab procedures. Admissions have grown by 4 percent while outpatient surgeries have grown by 11 percent. Martin said it’s Morehead’s growth and medical staff that sets it apart from other hospitals in the area.

Staff is also gearing up to combat changes coming with healthcare reform. Martin said beginning in fiscal year 2013, part of the hospital’s payments will be based on patient satisfaction scores. The incentive payments start at 1 percent of base Medicare payments and will jump to 2 percent by fiscal year 2017.

Beginning in October 2012, hospitals will be penalized for high readmission rates. There will be a 1 percent loss of Medicare reimbursement in 2012 followed by 2 percent in 2013 and 3 percent in 2014. Reports show that 20 percent of Medicare patients who are readmitted cost the federal government $17.4 billion annually.

“We have to become much more creative in how we deliver healthcare,” he said. “We need to begin thinking about how do we improve the health status of our patients. It’s not just a matter of discharging patients; it’s really transitioning them to that next level of care.”

The pharmacy is heading to an entirely new space following the move of the cardiovascular department. Pharmacy Director Jane Younts said this move will offer plenty of room for storage as well as improved methods of security and sterilization.

“I’ve been here for 26 years and we’ve been in the same space, with the exception of adding a few more rooms,” she said of the old pharmacy location. “Our air conditioning unit couldn’t keep up with the amount of computers and other equipment we needed to cool. It’s going to be a huge difference, so we’re really excited about the move. I am also a little nervous because we will need to maintain operations throughout the entire move.”

The new space will be nearly 4,000 square feet, compared to the old department at 2,300 square feet. She said the space is very open and will be better utilized for storage and preparing medicines.

They are also in the process of upgrading to an automated pharmacy dispensing system. The Omnicell dispensing units will be able to repackage medicine in-house with barcodes to decrease on human error, Younts said. It will also help to better manage inventory.

“We’re going to start moving hopefully on Monday,” she said. “We’ve already had some training with staff in the new procedures.”

Pharmacy’s new headquarters will feature security windows, cameras and even windows. Younts said she’s perhaps most excited about the natural light.

Morehead Memorial Hospital currently has 108 acute care beds, 121 long-term beds, seven medical office buildings and 33 physicians on staff. The Cancer Center recently achieved re-accreditation through the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer.

Many additional programs including ultrasound, vascular lab, mammography and nuclear medicine recently achieved accreditation through the College of Radiology for CT and Nuclear Medicine.