Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center - 4th Quarter 2021 Update
Description: The Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center in La Junta, Colorado at Sunrise. (Photo Credit: Aaron Torres)
Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center - 4th Quarter 2021 Update
At the corner of Carson and 10th street, there stands a building, brick and mortar. Nothing more, nothing less. Inside that building is millions of dollars’ worth of equipment, MRI, CT scan, Blood chemistry Analyzers, EKG machines, Infusion pumps, defibrillators. A building, full of equipment. There it sits. And that is all it can do.
But every morning, noon, and night, 24/7/365, the building is occupied with healthcare professionals and support staff. The blood of the facility. It comes to life; it breathes response and compassion. The staff of the organization, the people of the organization. The people who make Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center.
It takes everyone to support everyone. When you come to AVRMC for healthcare needs, you may only encounter a few persons. But there is a vast team of people who stand behind the person whom you encounter.
Admission clerks, housekeepers, maintenance workers, billers, secretaries, accountants, purchasing clerks, and many others who support the effort to take care of you. The staff involved in direct patient care, such as nurses, lab technologists, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, pharmacists, and radiology technologists, must work in concert to deliver a crescendo of events that addresses your needs as a patient.
And the best part, they all love doing it. There is such personal satisfaction in working on a team that collaborates to deliver healthcare to the community.
No one group can be singled out. AVRMC is the sum of its parts. It always must equal to excellent for each and every patient across a vast array of disease processes.
The effort put forth by this team during the past two years can only be described as superhuman. The long hours, the anxiety, the joy of a patient being sent home. The sadness of a patient losing the fight against Covid. They, the AVRMC Team, are always ready for the next challenge.
The fourth quarter of 2021 was very busy for the hospital. With the fall season surge of Covid-19, Inpatient admissions were up as well as ER visits. There were 29 CV19 inpatient admissions in third quarter and 73 in the fourth quarter. During that same time, there were 39 ER admissions in the third quarter and 196 in the fourth quarter. January has seen less activity.
Staffing
AVRMC, like other hospitals nationwide, has had to turn to contract labor for staffing due to CV19 positives, CV19 mandate non-compliance, and quarantine due to exposures. So far, AVRMC has been able to keep all units open but with census caps that are commensurate with staffing availability.
AVRMC adjusted its basic entry starting wage to $15.00/hr on January 1, 2022. AVRMC also adjusted clinical employees’ salaries, increased shift differentials, and paid a bonus in December for an annual salary outlay of $1,273,984.
CV 19 Money
AVRMC has submitted all necessary paperwork to the Department of Health and Human Services for review of the Provider Relief Fund Phase 1 payment from April 2020. AVRMC did not apply for Phase 2, was ineligible for Phase 3 due to the amount received in Phase 1, and received $160,793 for Phase 4. AVRMC received $1,358,923 for the American Rescue Rural Payment which was utilized for staff salary increases.
Medicare has taken back $1,026,132 of the $4,050,879 provided to AVRMC in the Medicare Advance Payment Program. Currently, Medicare is withholding 25% of current payments for this recapture; and in March 2022, they will begin withholding 50% of the payments. Then in September 2022, there will be a demand for the remaining balance which is projected to be $2,270,679. AVRMC has reserved this amount for that September payment.
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AVRMC Covid-19 admissions graph
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