John Day looking at strategies to get out of the red

Published 6:15 am Tuesday, August 30, 2022

JOHN DAY — After the Blue Mountain Hospital District in John Day posted a $1.4 million operating loss for the last fiscal year, the district’s board of directors gave a glimpse into some of its strategies to address financial challenges during the board’s meeting on Aug. 24.

From applying for more than $4 million in federal pandemic relief money to tossing around the idea of maximizing the value of the district’s real estate holdings to offset traveling fees the hospital pays expensive contract labor, the district is looking at various ways to get back in the black.

Last month, the Blue Mountain Hospital District applied for $4.3 million in disaster relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to the district’s chief financial officer, Eric Price.

The funding, Price said, would reimburse the hospital district for the additional costs of operating safely and handling boosted patient loads during the COVID-19 pandemic from July 2021 to June 2022.

According to Price, the funding is intended to allow the hospital to be reimbursed for the “non-budgeted, extraordinary” costs the hospital has had to incur over the last year.

Those costs, he said, are associated with contract labor, COVID-19 screeners at the front entrance of the hospital, the purchase of personal protective equipment and additional oxygen tanks, among other expenses.

Price said he is submitting application packets for the funding one quarter at a time and he anticipates that the hospital will receive its first funding award within the next two to three months.

He said last month’s submission was for $300,000.