Twenty-twenty has been an exciting year for the Hospital District for many reasons. While a large amount of time and energy has gone into dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, our other work has not stopped.

COVID-19 required many changes to procedures to ensure the safety of our patients and staff including screening, masking, limited visiting, limited in-person meetings, and more. Despite our best efforts, we still went through an internal outbreak. We have had a total of 14 patients test positive for COVID-19 and a handful of nursing staff. Our staff pulled together in an amazing way to care our patients even while picking up extra shifts and overtime. As of now, all patients are clear of COVID-19. We have performed over 771 COVID-19 tests and are expecting our first shipment of vaccine soon. While the battle still rages, our staff remain dedicated and steadfast in their commitment to providing our community high quality care.

We have accomplished a number of improvements at the Hospital District as well:

We hired two nurse practitioners, one physician assistant, and a full-time physician in 2020. We are now 100% staffed with our own providers, which has helped us elevate the consistency and quality of care while also saving a significant sum of money on traveling providers.

We started in the 340B pharmacy program, a federal program which allows us to get medications at discounted rates. We have partnered with Pomeroy Pharmacy for the program which is bringing in an average of approximately $9,000 per month.

We entered into a contract with Allevant which is a joint venture between the Mayo Clinic and Select Medical. Allevant has provided and will continue to provide educational courses developed by the Mayo Clinic to enhance the knowledge and skill of our staff. They are working with us to build relationships with larger hospitals to gain more referrals and will assist with marketing. The goal of Allevant’s program is to help us build our transitional care program which is one of the best sources of income for the District as well as a great service for the community.

We are in the final planning and design phase of a large construction project that will upgrade the electrical system in the old hospital building, install a modern heating and cooling system, and build an expansion into the east lawn to house a new CT scanner. The estimated budget for the project at this time is over $3 million but will be paid for all through grant funding that has to be spent or returned and cannot be used for regular operations. No levy money will go towards this project and we do not plan to put any hospital revenue towards it either. The addition of the CT scanner will significantly expand our capabilities in the ER and outpatient CT scans will provide a good boost to the radiology department’s revenue. We will be providing more information on the project in the coming months.

We are in the process of planning and implementing a tele-cardiology program at the clinic as well.

The Hospital District has seen a significant increase in patient volumes across all departments. Inpatient, observation, and swing bed volumes increased by roughly 7%. Emergency room utilization increased 16%. Outpatient services have increased by a total 26.3%. We are excited about the growth we have seen and hope to continue it into the next year.

The Hospital District passed an $860,000 special levy in 2020 that will be collected in 2021. The levy was necessary to help make up for operational losses over the past years since our last levy was collected in 2017 as well as projected losses for 2020 and 2021. All the things outlined in this article are concrete steps towards decreasing the districts operational losses and in turn decreasing our need for tax support in the future. We are projecting a loss of roughly $420,000 next year prior to tax and grant income marking a significant improvement over the past several years. After our grant revenue and tax income we are projecting a small profit for next year.

We want to extend our appreciation to our community for the continued support. Garfield County Hospital District remains committed to providing high quality care to meet the healthcare needs of our community. From all of us at the District, we wish you a happy New Year!