For the first month of the new fiscal year, Ellsworth County Medical Center saw its third highest monthly gross revenue amount in July, according to ECMC Chief Executive Officer Jim Kirkbride.

At the Aug. 21 hospital board of directors meeting, Kirkbride said gross revenue came in at $2,909,247, which is $1,019,618 more than the budgeted amount of $1,889,618. That is $1 million ahead of the gross revenue charted from the same time last year.

“This is, I think, the strongest July I have participated in,” he said.

The hospital also saw $63,054 in revenue for the month from its 340B Discount Prescription Drug program.

“$63,000 is one of the better months we’ve had in 340B in quite a while,” Kirkbride said. “There has been some national and then some state changes that went in in the last couple of months that’s going to help drive this, and we were able to add some drugs that were left off that list prior to, so we’re seeing more of that. I don’t think were going to get back to the $1 million a year level, but were getting there.”

Kirkbride said it was the first month ECMC had been getting credit for the outpatient side scripts written.

“Remember, this was if our provider wrote the script and then went to one of our pharmacies and got it filled, we got that credit,” he said. “This is if we do a wound care patient or a clinic patient in our facility, and we do quite a few of that medication, it’s not part of that $63,000. It’s actually up here on the cost savings side. But this will be the first month that is in full swing.”

• As far as employee turnover for July was concerned, Kirkbride said the report showed there were no exits.

“I’m going to call that incomplete,” he said. “This is the first time ever it’s all zeros, so at this point, there’s zeros all the way down (the chart) and we’re right at budget.”

• Looking at the statistics for July, inpatients rose from the previous month with 54 patients in July compared to 36 in June.

“This was a little surprising,” Kirkbride said. “I go see patients everyday and I kind of get a thing in my head as to a sense of stats and things. I thought the inpatient numbers would be down more than they are, but actually, the inpatient number is up higher. I think what I was seeing incorrectly was our skilled days are down so much. But that was a huge month in June.”

ECMC had 89 swing bed days in June with just 51 in July.

Kirbride said at 22 for July, observation admissions was right where it has been. In June, there were 17 such admissions.

As far as emergency room visits, July was the strongest month in the past four months at 233 visits. That compares to 208 in June.

Outpatient visits for July came back strong at 1,373 visits, compared to 1,178 in June.

“That contributed a lot to that $3 million gross,” Kirkbride said.

Clinic encounters were also up in July with 1,189 compared to 1,140 in June.

“Nearly 1,200 in the summer is good for us,” he said.

• Kirkbride said July was certainly a gift for the hospital when it came to seasonal illnesses — COVID, flu and strep.

“That’s traditional,” he said.

Kirkbride said the seasonal includes not only the month of July, but August when kids are getting ready for school and school physicals are done.

“So we really didn’t have anything that stood out,” he said.

• Kirkbride said the hospital executive team continues to update the strategic plan. With regards to the master facility plan, he said the architect who did the master facility plan came back and looked at the square footage the hospital rents in the administration building as a potential space for the hospital to build out instead of new construction.

“We’ll see if that space meets our needs architecturally, and then we’ll put that to the staff that would work there and see if it will meet their needs clinically,” Kirkbride said.

• One capital request, a patient lift for the inpatient and outpatient areas of the hospital costing $8,500, required board signature.

Kirkbride said the lift works in conjunction with the new patient room beds purchased by ECMC two years ago.

“When we got the new beds, we kept the old lift, which was adequate,” he said.

• Kirkbride said the search for a new director of nursing is ongoing.

“We’ve got two very competent nurses who have interviewed for our director of nursing position,” he said. “We’re still calculating and discussing that whole process, but it’s very good for us that (we have) two local, talented applicants that want to enhance their career by leading our nurse division.”

Kirkbride said the process is going very well and he expects to have a decision probably by the end of the week.

The next meeting of the Ellsworth County Medical Center board of directors will be at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 18 in the hospital conference room.