Three Rivers Hospital CEO shares plight with public

BREWSTER – Three Rivers Hospital, like many small community hospitals around the state and the nation, is feeling the financial distress caused by a conjunction of events accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently CEO Scott Graham shared his hospital’s funding crisis with Governor Jay Inslee and the Washington State Hospital Association that netted a one-time cash allotment that will help the hospital operate through April.
“Over the last few years, we’ve been able to stabilize the hospital’s finances and even begun to grow a little, but we have been operating paycheck to paycheck,” said Graham. “I’m sounding the alarm now with the hope that we will be able to secure additional financial reserves to weather this storm.”
The storm Graham refers to is a steep decline in patients visiting the hospital combined with a state order to stop all non-urgent medical procedures and the hospital’s push to get ready for the potential influx of COVID-19 cases. That combination means less revenue and more expenses at a time when the hospital can ill afford either.
“Our weekly expenses vary between about $150,000 and $450,000 depending on payroll and which bills are due,” said Business Development Director and Public Records Officer Jennifer Best. “We spend just under $300,000 every two weeks on payroll.”
    
With some120 employees and 89 of them full-time staff, the hospital departments are doing their best to manage and hold down labor costs.

“After April 1, we will be saving some money on nurse travelers we had to bring in to cover OB because their assignments are ending,” Best said.

Last October the Three Rivers Board of Commissioners voted to discontinue the hospital’s obstetrics program at the end of this month after Family Health Centers announced it was centralizing its OB services at Mid-Valley Hospital in Omak in a cost-cutting decision.

With Congress poised to pass a $2.2 trillion relief package that includes $150 billion for health care, help may soon be on the way for Three Rivers but none too soon.

Community members can help the hospital by keeping scheduled appointments though they may take place by way of telephone or video chat.

“We also have a nurse hotline, so if patients who have COVID-19 symptoms want to talk to a nurse they can call our clinic at 509-689-3749 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday,” said Best. “We have also been working on reviving our mammography program and starting a new outpatient physical therapy service, but those are on hold during this time in order to minimize risk to patients.”

Although current restrictions are affecting revenues and threatening the ability to keep bills and staff paid, Three Rivers supports the Governor’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy order and social distancing guidelines that have been established to slow the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, a team comprised of hospital administration, key leadership, and providers has been meeting weekly and attending conference calls in coordination with Okanogan County Public Health, the state Department of Health, and other healthcare organizations throughout the region to stay apprised of the COVID-19 situation as it develops, a TRH media release said.
On Tuesday, March 24, Okanogan County confirmed its first positive COVID-19 case. Two more were confirmed last Friday, March 27. As of this writing Okanogan County Emergency Management reports that 92 of 143 samples submitted for testing have returned negative with 48 still pending.
For more information about what Three Rivers and its clinic, Three Rivers Family Medicine, are doing to address the pandemic visit threerivershospital.net/covid-19-information/ or
brewsterclinic.org/covid19 online.