Estes Park Health is on target in meeting its goals in focusing on revenue growth and expense management, Aysha Douglas, EPH’s chief financial officer told the board of directors during Aug. 27 finance committee and Aug. 28 board meetings.
The board of directors of EPH also plans to meet tomorrow, Sept. 10 in executive session from 8 to 10:30 a.m. “for the purpose of determining positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations; developing strategy for negotiations; and instructing negotiators, with regard to Affiliation with a 3rd Party, EPH Strategic Initiatives, EPH Quality Initiatives, and the relationship with the EPH Foundation.”
Presentations from Douglas at both open meetings in August showed EPH received $27,477,552 in comparison to $27,992,477 that had been budgeted, just $514,936 under anticipated revenues. Operating expenses during the first six months of this year were $270,854 less than budgeted at $30,668,469.
Compared to income and expenses between January and June 2023, income surpassed 2023 income by $1,206,192 or 4.6%. Expenses came in $204,186 less that during the same period.
“We’re really working on managing our expenses, and our revenues have gone up. It’s a great improvement year over year,” Douglas told those attending the finance committee meeting.
During the regular board meeting, Douglas pointed out that EPH has increased its cash standing from 2023 by 100%. “By increasing our bottom line we are a healthy organization.”
Given the current turnaround trend toward increased revenues and declining expenses vs. past years’ reports of declining income and increasing expenses, Douglas said, “We’re going in the right direction, and we’re doing it quickly,” he added.
Financial control has been a primary consideration for management, CEO Vern Carda pointed out, saying, “There’s not one silver bullet that was built into the budget. We did a lot of different things. For example, we moved the sleep lab into the building. It helps us capture better revenue. There were a lot of initiatives like that, little bits of revenue— $150,000 net here, $100,000, $200,000 there. We did a pretty comprehensive study on our rate structure. We found ourselves quite low in the market so we made some changes in that rate structure that helped as well,” Carda said.
“It’s a combination of many different items as well as expense cuts. It’s making sure that we are efficient and effective with all of our services and finding the little expense cuts here and the small, marginal revenue growth here and there, and that’s our commitment,” Carda explained.
The finance report was just a portion of recent business handled by the EPH board. Following the Aug. 28 regular meeting, three separate executive sessions requiring a projected 10 hours behind closed doors also were held.
A Thursday, Aug. 29 executive session was scheduled to last five hours, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. “pursuant to Section 24-6-402(4)(e) C.R.S. for the purpose of determining positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations; developing strategy for negotiations; and instructing negotiators, with regard to EPH Strategic Initiatives.” The agenda did not include any specific negotiations that might be involved.
Just five days later, and the day after the Labor Day holiday, the board posted a 2.5-hour executive session from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., “pursuant to Section 24-6-402(4)(e) C.R.S. for the purpose of determining positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations; developing strategy for negotiations; and instructing negotiators, with regard to Affiliation with a 3rd Party, EPH Strategic Initiatives, EPH Quality Initiatives, and the relationship with the EPH Foundation.
Last Friday, Sept. 6, the board was scheduled to meet in another 2.5 hour-long executive session from 3:30 to 6 p.m. “pursuant to Section 24-6-402(4)(e) C.R.S. for the purpose of determining positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations; developing strategy for negotiations; and instructing negotiators, with regard to Affiliation with a 3rd Party, and the relationship with the EPH Foundation.”
No further meetings for the future have been posted, although postings are not required until 24 hours prior to a meeting being conducted. Meetings are posted on the EPH website. The next regular meeting of the EPH board of directors is scheduled for Sept. 25 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Estes Park Town Board meeting room.