It takes a lot to achieve excellence at a critical access, rural community hospital, but Pullman Regional Hospital is committed to the pursuit through the Next Era of Excellence. Outwardly, that excellence can be seen through the 5-star ratings and awards we receive for care, but there are so many factors behind the scenes that go into the high standard of care and service we deliver every day. This series of blogs is designed to draw back that curtain of unfamiliarity and give you a glimpse in to your community hospital and our pursuit of excellence.
It is important to understand Pullman Regional Hospital’s structure. We are considered a public hospital district, critical access hospital. The US government considers us rural and small (25 inpatient beds). We are designated a critical access hospital because Pullman and the region are rural and therefore it’s critical we have a hospital to serve it. The critical access designation also means that Medicare, our biggest financial payer, pays us 70 percent of the true cost of delivering care. Medicaid, the other governmental payer pays us 50 percent of the true cost of delivering care. Combined, Medicare and Medicaid account for about 46% of the payments we receive.
As a public hospital district, we are “owned” by the community. Our district boundaries were established in the 1970s as Pullman City limits. As Pullman grows, so do our boundaries and new properties are added to the district every year. We are governed by an elected body of seven hospital district commissioners. Because we are a public hospital district, we have the ability to present the community with proposals for financial support through M&O levies and bond (building) levies.
Finally, we have one more label. We function as a non-profit in that we do not have shareholders and our ’profits’ are put back in to the maintenance and operations of the hospital, expanding space, upgrading equipment, and developing new services. You can see from the statistics below that our demands for capital equipment far exceed the excess revenue (profits) we are budgeting for.
Our 2019 budget presents the following key metrics to guide our planning:
Next up in the Striving for Excellence series: National and local trends in healthcare and challenges facing Pullman Regional Hospital today.