Expense cutting, contract renegotiation, staff cooperation and strategic planning tell only part of the story of Loma Linda University Medical Center's renewed financial health, says hospital spokesperson.
Expense cutting, contract renegotiation, staff cooperation and strategic planning tell only part of the story of Loma Linda University Medical Center’s (LLUMC) renewed financial health, says Augustus Cheatham, the institution’s vice president for public affairs and marketing. The Seventh-day Adventist-affiliated medical center, renowned for its groundbreaking research in areas such as heart-transplant procedures and proton-beam therapy, is now in the black after financial projections for 1999 predicted a $41 million deficit.
“God has been part of this turnaround,” says Cheatham. “We have prayed together, worked hard, and moved forward, claiming God’s promise to bless our efforts.”
LLUMC ended the year with a $3 million deficit rather than the projected $41 million shortfall. “For the year 2000 we have had regular gains and we’re significantly ahead of where we were,” says Cheatham. “We’re doing well.”
Cheatham pays tribute to the employees who took a short-term five percent pay cut, along with administrative staff whose salaries were temporarily reduced by 10 percent. He says that the staff’s commitment to the mission of the medical center was a significant factor in the relatively low number who left before the wage cuts were rescinded in January 2000. “We were concerned, but by and large our employees stuck with us,” he says. “Many have said to me that the Christian values and special mission of Loma Linda Medical Center is ‘more than just rhetoric’ and that is why they stayed.”
The financial difficulties of 1999 were “significant” and were not taken lightly by administration, says Cheatham. “We’ve got to continue to be aggressive about efficiency, keeping quality up while keeping costs down, monitoring things like staffing practices, and working with insurance payers to negotiate reimbursements for patient care that more realistically reflect the high quality of care Loma Linda provides.”
Less weighted down with financial concerns, LLUMC continues to move forward with its “exciting research and academic program,” says Cheatham. He cites the LLUMC’s involvement in the national trials of an experimental stem-cell transplant program, which will explore the potential of the procedure in treating a wide range of diseases, including some forms of cancer.
Last month at LLUMC, a 34-year-old Californian woman became the first in the state to receive a transplant of her own stem-cells in an effort to treat an immune-system illness called scleroderma.
LLUMC, established in 1905, employs more than 9,000 staff, teaches some 3,400 students and fills 886 hospital beds.