If financial losses were symptoms, Delta Health System would surely be suffering from them and chronically so with an uncertain prognosis.
As of Aug. 1, 2022, DHS — all facilities and medical groups — has a net income of a negative $13.2 million, according to Delta Health System interim CEO Iris Yeldell-Stacker.
Stacker, whose predecessor is now the King’s Daughters Medical Center of Brookhaven CEO, Scott Christensen, did not deny the task before her is a “daunting” one.
She told the Washington County Board of Supervisors during their regular Monday meeting, “I don’t have exceptionally good news, but I do have a plan.”
Rather than discuss DHS’ finances on a month-to-month basis, Stacker submitted a report and talked about the fiscal year to date.
It’s possible Stacker chose that avenue because of the fact her predecessor had not submitted a financial report to the BOS since February which encompassed the months of October, November and December 2021.
However, the month of June was spent “chewing up” DHS’ financials and making corrections, Stacker noted, and therefore an audit update will be provided to the BOS along with a more accurate picture of where DHS stands financially in the coming weeks.
“In the actual month (of June) we had to correct a $5 million adjustment on contractual and $1 million adjustment on contract labor,” she highlighted.
Of the negative $13.2 million, DHS–The Medical Center has a net income of negative $334,000; Northwest Regional Medical Center in Clarksdale has a net loss of $3 million; Highland Hills Medical Center in Senatobia has a net loss of $2.2 million; and DHS’ medical groups consisting of Washington County, Clarksdale and Senatobia have a combined net loss of $7.6 million in the year to date.
Stacker attributed the significant losses to COVID and the surging wage demand for nurses, in large parts — two factors that have resulted in the medical center having to “right-size” its nursing staff and operate with only one medical floor.
To further alleviate the financial hemorrhaging, DHS closed its NICU and cardiac rehabilitation department which was a “non-revenue producing venture.”
In addition, DHS’ CFO Scott Goodin left his post this past Wednesday as well as the lead controller whom Stacker said was doing most of the work.
“The staff that was left there didn’t really know how to complete the full finances, so we had to have someone come in to learn the processes first and then evaluate our processes to make sure they’re viable and good processes and get our staff trained to make sure that going forward, we would be even better,” she explained. “I can only get us to grow and to help with our employees, we have what we call the bridge plan that is looking at opportunities to increase our revenue and decrease our expenses and to look at overutilization and underutilization.”
The emergence and long-lasting impact of COVID-19 caused the DHS administration to resort to a substantial amount of contract labor to keep the hospital afloat.
“We got the COVID money in and we got money from Medicare. We got Medicaid funds that we had to pay back and we’re paying that back now so that’s one of the things that was really hurting our financials on a month-to-month basis because each month we’re having to give a million plus dollars back to Medicare of the $14 million they loaned us,” Stacker highlighted.
She also alluded to the inflated cost of medical equipment and supplies.
“We can’t raise prices because if we do, we’re still going to get the same amount for Medicare, Medicaid and now, insurance, so it doesn’t make any difference,” she illustrated. “We are paying sometimes twice the value of some of our supplies to take care of our patients.”
As it pertains to nurses’ salaries, Stacker said what was once $40 to $55 an hour is now $150 to $175 an hour.
“That’s not sustainable so, one of the things we had to do was right-size our nursing staff. We only have one medical floor open and we have beds all over the place, we just don’t have the staff to take care of those beds,” she said further.
While the hope was that nurses would return to DHS after the pandemic settled some, that is not the case.
The medical center has managed to retain the vital nurses it has with in-house contracts.
Given the small competitive advantage DHS has when it comes to paying nurses an attractive wage along with its financial pitfalls, Stacker said the current one may be DHS’ predicament for quite some time.
“It’s hard to think about it, especially for someone like us who have been here for most of our lives to see our hospital being (reduced) to one floor, but it might be the reality for a little while,” she added.
Despite what seems to be a very turbulent shake-up in DHS leadership, Stacker is forward looking and confident she can only make DHS better from here, starting with the opening of DHS’ pain clinic on Tuesday.
The DHS Board of Trustees consist of Sam Newsom, Chairman; Jamelda Fulton, Vice-Chair; Howard Sanders, Secretary; Henry E. Rucker Sr., Brother Sandifer, Bryan Oakes, and Malcolm Jackson.
A look back at DHS in recent years
In January 2020, then Delta Regional Medical Center announced Stephanie Patton as a member of the DRMC leadership team and executive director, Health System Development.
According to DRMC’s press release, Patton’s role would entail working with Delta-wide community leadership including area physicians, hospitals, clinics, economic developers, elected officials, non-profit organizations, and other Delta stakeholders, to cultivate the initiative and expand Delta-wide healthcare services.
In July 2020, DRMC launched the Mississippi Family Residency Program, the first of its kind according to DRMC’s press release, with a seven member residency class that began their three year formal training. Each year, up to eight residents would be admitted into the program to begin their three years which will increase family medicine healthcare capability.
In August 2020, Christensen informed the BOS of a “staffing crisis” at DRMC due in part to the Coronavirus and the existing nurse shortage that was only exacerbated by the pandemic.
He discussed implementing incentives to attract more nurses.
In September 2020, the former DRMC was rebranded as Delta Health System, which according to DHS’ press release, came after several years of “strategic due diligence by the hospital leadership.”
Christensen attributed the rebranding approach to seeing Delta-area hospitals close, physicians age out, patient outmigration, and continued challenges related to healthcare access.
“As the largest medical provider in the Mississippi and Arkansas Delta and one of the largest employers, we feel it’s our responsibility to take a leadership role in addressing these challenges, working strategically and collaboratively to sustain healthcare and keep it viable in our local communities. Our intent is to go beyond just treating the sick. This name change better reflects that strategy,” he said in the September 2020 release.
In February 2021, Christensen announced the opening of Delta Health System-Northwest Regional in Clarksdale and welcomed Janet Benzing as the administrator for Delta Health System-Northwest Regional of Clarksdale. Benzing had been employed with DHS for eight years as the executive director of Ancillary Services.
Also in February 2021, Christensen announced plans to open the Highland Hills Medical Center in Senatobia, Mississippi to be the latest addition to Delta Health System expansion across the state.
A DHS press release stated that two initial priorities of the DHS team at that time were to open the emergency room providing urgent care to the area and to establish relationships with the local healthcare providers.
“The Highland Hills addition is a continuation of Delta Health System’s strategic plan to increase access to excellent healthcare throughout the region. Our goal is to give communities the ability to receive their care locally by qualified, professional and compassionate providers,” said Sam Newsom, Chairman, Delta Health System in a statement.
According to the DHS press release, DHS was introduced to the idea of buying the facility, formerly known as North Oak Hospital, through the efforts of State Representatives Trey Lamar and John Hines.
In July 2, 2021, Christensen announced and welcomed Josh Hammons as the Delta Health-Highland Chief Executive Administrator and on July 29, 2021 announced the hospital’s official opening for operations.
In February 2022, Christensen presented the DHS quarterly financial report to the BOS for the months of October, November and December and underscored the fluctuation in revenue from month to month as the hospital operated with a substantial deficit at that time.
In April 2022, Christensen, on behalf of DHS, committed to a contribution of $1.5 million to the Colorado St. Extended project contingent on a $1.5 million contribution from the City of Greenville and Washington County each as he believed it would be viable for a second DHS campus. “From our perspective the development of a south campus of the hospital is something we’ve been talking about for quite awhile. It originally started with a new hospital and that’s obviously changed to more of an outpatient type of feel and setting, but really we can’t move forward until the appropriate type of infrastructure exists there,” he said. “So, as soon as that happens we’ll be in a position to go forward…we’re kind of at a stopping point until we get some of those things in place.”
“It’s rare for the hospital to be in the infrastructure business so it’s new territory for us, but we’ll do whatever it takes to commit,” he said at the time.
An economic study for the addition of a south DHS campus was commissioned at that time, but no further developments have been made since the city and county both voted to contribute $2 million respectively to the project back in May.
In July 1, 2022, Iris Stacker is announced as DHS interim CEO as Christensen is resigning and will become the new CEO of King’s Daughters Medical Center in Brookhaven.
