"The patient is improving"

Sonoma Valley Hospital Chief Executive Carl Gerlach stood before the Sonoma City Council last week to show the council and the public how the business plan, on which the hospital has staked its future, is beginning to show results.
Talking over colorful charts and graphs, Gerlach outlined his goals for financial turnaround, facilities upgrade, and capital financing, and his reasons for optimism, a great clinical management team, excellence in operating room and diagnostic services, increased medical staff cooperation and demonstrated community support. He showed that the turnaround results so far were encouraging. November and January were hard, he said, but in the last three pay periods, there’s been a substantial increase in cash.
He said the hospital has attracted 11 new doctors and with more referrals by part time specialists, too, the patient volume has been up. Cash flow is improving. He said the line of credit they managed to acquire will help with unexpected external events, such as the State budget cuts, which will impact Medical payments, which will especially hurt the small hospitals.
“I don’t believe we can survive independently,” Gerlach told the council. McSweeney explained, “Health care is very labor-intensive. There’s an extremely high fixed cost. And it’s very hard, when you’ve got a labor-intensive industry, and your work is hands-on, it’s hard to improve productivity.” He said that all small hospitals have the problem. “We have very little ability to influence our raters. Blue Cross and the others answer to their employees. We need to form a network and level the playing field.”
Tonight, at the meeting of the district’s board of directors, Gerlach will give a financial update and will answer questions pertaining to the up-coming bond measure. The meeting is at 6 p.m., at the Sonoma Community Center, 276 E. Napa Street, Rm. 110.