It was this week 40 years ago that the administrator of the Mary Alley Hospital rebuffed a report from the Finance Committee deeming its finances “critical.”
At a meeting of the FinCom, members examined a report that found the hospital had a net loss of $142,000 across the first two months of fiscal year 1984, July and August, seemingly refuting the notion that the hospital had been operating better financially than in the recent past. And, while Anthony Caico, the administrator, acknowledged there was truth to the report, he deemed it incomplete and misleading.
“We certainly do not consider our finances critical at this time. If anyone had taken the time to check with me or any of the trustees, the situation would have been fully explained,” he said.
Caico said the summer months are traditionally times of low hospital census, due to a number of factors, including staff vacations, postponements of elective surgery until after the warm weather, and the fact that cold weather tends to bring out chronic illnesses. In 1983, he added, the low census in July and August was compounded by the fact that three of the hospital’s staff physicians were on extended vacations during that period.
Additionally, the psychiatrist who operated an alcohol clinic at the hospital lost a counselor and had to shutter the program while he reorganized, Caico said.
“This program is now back on track and we expect a more favorable census throughout the remainder of the year,” he said.
Caico also responded to questioning about the hospital’s projected finances, which had come under scrutiny by the FinCom.
“It’s impossible for me or anyone else to accurately predict how many people will actually get sick this fiscal year or any fiscal year. We can only make calculated guesses, based upon past trends. However, we are early into the fiscal year and for information to be released that we are in critical financial trouble, seems a little premature to me,” Caico said.
“If the hospital shows a big deficit at the end of the current fiscal year, then they can say we were wrong and that we are in financial trouble. But such implications are unrealistic at this point in time,” he added.