Sarasota Memorial

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The centerpiece of the campusaimprovement project, a new nine-story, 220-room patient bed is expected to take shape beginning later this The bed tower will create a significant change to enhancing patient, physician and staff improving safety and meeting changing communityt needs, said David Verinder, CFO. It also will allows for more efficient use of technology atSarasota Memorial, one of the firs large community hospitals to have a completd electronic medical records system, said Denis Baker, chief informatiobn officer. The Sarasota County Publi HospitalDistrict won’t decide until late summe how to finance the project.
Sarasota Memorial has a luxury not manyhospitalz have, a built-up reserve that would allow the hospital to fund the projectt on its own, Verinder said, although he said the preferencde would be to use a combination of debt and reserves. The credift climate for hospital funding has been tight andremainsz “really rough,” said Brian Fender, an attorney at in Tampa. Only about a half-dozenn municipal bond deals have closed in the statesincs January, although Fender said he’s starting to see more dealse open up and the market could improve over the next few Investors in hospital bond deal deals are looking for security, or the revenud stream underlying repayments, and the credit qualityy of the issuer, Fender said.
Fitch Ratings upgradedd the ratings on Sarasota Memorialto A+ from A last year, largelt because of the public hospital district’s ability to levy About the same time, revised its outlook for the hospitap to positive from stable, citin g “much improved” operating performance among its It’s a big shift from the negative margins of three years ago. That’s when Gwen MacKenziew was hired as president and CEO and broughtr in Verinder to help turn the financial situation around. For the fiscal year ended 30, Sarasota Memorial had nearly $60 million more in revenuse thanin expenses, not counting the impact of paper lossezs on investments.
At the end of the fiscal year, the hospitaol system had $33.8 millio more in cash and investments than it did oneyear earlier, and its long-termn debt was down by $12.6 million. The new bed tower will replacs some of the oldest parts ofthe hospital, datin back 50 years or Right now, seven of every 10 patient rooms are semi-private, with 30 percent private. That will switch to 70 percenft private, 30 percent semi-private, improving patient satisfaction and helpingcontroll infections, Verinder said. Safety and satisfaction increasinglhy are important factorsin reimbursement. Another key will be bringin g Sarasota Memorial’s technology to the bedside.
Currently, nurses have to push computerz around on carts to enter orderds and patient notes in the electronic medicalrecordes system. One proposed design for the new rooms would have computerzs built into wall cabinets ineach room, Baker The bed tower is the second phase of the multiyeare project. A new energy center to provide backul power for the hospital is expected to come on line in The old energy plant in front of the hospital will be demolished in the fall to make way for the new bed Other parts of the plan includ e upgrades to the critical care center and enhanced physician office space in the medica arts buildingon campus.
Sarasota Memorial Hospitak has had an electronic medical records system for abouga decade. The hospital’s own analysis two yearxs ago placed it in the top 1 percent of hospital s nationwide in terms of EMR saidDenis Baker, CIO. Baker is waiting for clarificatiomn from the before he knows how Sarasotsa Memorial might tap into funding from the American Recovery andReinvestment Act. The act includes $19 billion in incentives to push hospitals and physician to adopt electronic health records technolog y and use it ina “meaningful” way. HHS is expected to definse “meaningful use” in about three Baker said.
“I have to believe we’re pretty well poise for that, but there may be some nuancew we have todeal with,” he said. announcements about stimulus funding appear on the Webat — Margie Manning