This is a time of growth and expansion for the hospitals owned by Samaritan Health Services, which serves the mid-Willamette Valley and central Oregon Coast with clinics and senior living centers in addition to its medical campuses.
Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, the largest in the nonprofit chain, is the exception and, unlike its smaller peers, is not undergoing an overhaul, according to The Lund Report’s latest review of hospital public records.
For the fourth year, The Lund Report is digging into the money and operations of Oregon’s hospitals. In our first five stories, we examined Providence Health and Services, Kaiser Permanente and Asante, PeaceHealth, three faith based chains with small Oregon footprints, and OHSU and its new affiliates Salem Health and Tuality.
The figures underpinning these examinations come from multiple sources:
- Profit, revenue and charity care figures come from audited reports prepared by each hospital and submitted to the Office for Oregon Health Policy & Research, which also provided information about capital projects under way.
- The size and reach of each hospital, as summarized through available beds, and inpatient, outpatient and emergency room figures, are reported by hospitals to the state-mandated Databank program.
- Hospital performance metrics are tracked by the Oregon Health Authority.
- Additional financial details about hospital chains come from IRS 990 forms and from the systems’ own unaudited reports.
Once we’ve examined every general admitting hospital in the state, we intend to report on the executive compensation, including bonuses, paid to hospital executives throughout Oregon.
Samaritan Health Services
The Corvallis-based nonprofit was founded in 1997 when Mid-Valley Healthcare and Samaritan Inc. merged in an effort to more efficiently serve their communities. Over the years other organizations have joined Samaritan Health, which now operates five hospitals – two on behalf of public districts. It also
runs a coordinated care organization known as InterCommunity Health Network, and sells small group and large group health insurance under the name Samaritan Health Plans.
In 2011, Samaritan Health Services partnered with Western University of Health Services to start the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Northwest, the first Oregon medical school to open in more than 100 years.
According to tax filings, Samaritan Health Services ended 2014 – the most recent year available – at a net loss of $821,220, after reporting a $3.7 million profit in 2013. With total assets of $288.97 million at the end of 2014, it was well positioned to absorb the small loss.
Today, four of Samaritan Health Services hospitals are expanding, remodeling, or preparing for other major structural overhauls: In Albany and Lebanon, construction is underway, while in Lincoln City and Newport, plans for new buildings are being developed.
Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center
The largest hospital serving Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties, Corvallis-based Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center was founded in 1913. It employed 2,357 full-time, part-time and temporary workers through the course of 2014.
In the Oregon Health Authority’s two-stage quality pool payment program, Good Samaritan was one of only three hospitals in Oregon to receive a $500,000 lump sum payment in the first stage. (The others were Adventist Medical Center and Shriners Hospital for Children.) This payment only went to large hospitals that achieved at least 75 percent of eligible performance metrics such as screening for drug and alcohol misuse and reducing hospital re-admissions. In addition to the “floor” payment, Good Samaritan received another $8.7 million in the second-stage of this program, reflecting its performance on those metrics.
Finances, year 2014:
Net loss: $6,427,286, compared to a net loss of $11,069,483 last year.
Net patient revenue: $312,270,629, up 2.05%.
Charity care: $7,098,677, down 70.7%.
Profit margin: negative 1.99%, up from negative 3.49% a year earlier.
Size and scope, 2014:
Available beds: 188, up from 165 last year
Inpatient days: 42,980, up 2.62%.
Emergency department visits: 20,561, up 16.68%.
Outpatient visits: 168,938, down 2.96%.
Samaritan Albany General Hospital
Though relatively small, Samaritan Albany Hospital employed 1,114 full-time, part-time and temporary employees over the course of 2014. It serves a population that is, on average, both older and sicker than most of Oregon.
Like most hospitals in the state, Samaritan Albany did not qualify for a lump-sum payment in the first stage of the Oregon Health Authority’s two-stage quality pool payment program. It did, however, receive $1.96 million through stage two of the program, reflecting its performance on metrics including following up with patients previously hospitalized for mental illness, and sharing emergency department visit information with primary care providers to reduce emergency department readmissions.
Last fall, Samaritan Albany began construction of a $6.9 million, 20,000-square-foot medical office building slated to house a sleep medicine program, primary care physicians, acupuncturists, massage therapists and a nutritionist. Completion is expected this summer.
Finances, year 2014:
Net income: $5,097,580, up 259.13% from 2013.
Net patient revenue: $154,478,123, up 7.51%.
Charity care: $4,628,512, down 51.62%.
Profit margin: 3.06%, up from negative 2.08% a year earlier.
Size and scope, 2014:
Available beds: 79, up from 69 last year
Inpatient days: 10,026, down 8.8%.
Emergency department visits: 23,903, up 10.69%.
Outpatient visits: 123,686, down 2.05%.
Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital
Started as a 50-bed acute-care hospital in 1952, Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital was converted to a smaller 25-bed critical access hospital in 2005. Employing 829 people over the course of 2014, It serves small towns in east Linn County, including Lebanon, Sweet Home and Brownsville. This hospital is too small to participate in the Oregon Health Authority’s quality payments program.
In September 2015, Samaritan Lebanon began a $10.9 million expansion of its emergency and surgery departments. The remodel and update will increase the number of emergency patient rooms from 12 to 21, create three rooms for mental health patients, and substantially increase the size of operating rooms, also creating a small room for minor surgical procedures. The project is expected to conclude in March 2017.
Finances, year 2014:
Net income: $2,348,515, up 511.67% from 2013.
Net patient revenue: $88,173,274, up 13.47%.
Charity care: $3,684,161, down 32.36%.
Profit margin: 2.47%, up from negative .67% a year earlier.
Size and scope, 2014:
Available beds: 25, the same as last year.
Inpatient days: 5,486, up 3.51%.
Emergency department visits: 17,239, up 18.64%.
Outpatient visits: 94,936, up 3.92%.
Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital
In 2001, North Lincoln Health District contracted with Samaritan Health to run its hospital. Since then, it has been known as Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital, under an agreement that continues through 2030. Based in Lincoln City, the hospital employed 426 full-time, part-time and temporary workers in 2014, and delivered 150 babies that year.
This hospital is too small to participate in the Oregon Health Authority’s quality payments program.
In February, Samaritan Health purchased the land the hospital stands on from the public hospital district, under an arrangement that keeps the district involved in its governance while allowing Samaritan North to develop plans for a new hospital building on its current 12-acre campus.
Planning efforts for the new hospital structure are expected to continue through 2017, and hospital officials say they do not have a budget completed yet. They intend to maintain 25 beds in the new facility, and keep its critical-access hospital designation.
Finances, year 2014:
Net income: $572,438, up 6.36% from 2013.
Net patient revenue: $45,657,152, up 6.04%.
Charity care: $2,336,371, down 14.99%.
Profit margin: 1.18%, up from 1.16% a year earlier.
Size and scope, 2014:
Available beds: 25, the same as last year.
Inpatient days: 3,495, up 3.34%.
Emergency department visits: 9,238, up 5.25%.
Outpatient visits: 51,923, up 3.14%.
Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital
In 2002, Pacific Communities Health District contracted with Samaritan Health to run its hospital. Since then, it’s been known as Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital, under an agreement that runs through 2031. The hospital employed 572 full-time, part-time and contract workers in 2013. It provides hospital care for a 270-mile area of Lincoln County, including Newport, Waldport, Toledo, Depoe Bay and Yachats.
This hospital is too small to participate in the Oregon Health Authority’s quality payments program.
In 2015, health district voters approved a bond measure to build a new hospital, which will be completed in several years. Full details are still coming together.
Finances, year 2014:
Net income: $2,573,222, up 19.52% from 2013.
Net patient revenue: $72,318,243, up 8.26%.
Charity care: $2,723,328, down 39.69%.
Profit margin: 3.4%, up from 3.1% a year earlier.
Size and scope, 2014:
Available beds: 25, the same as last year.
Inpatient days: 4,170, down 4.34%.
Emergency department visits: 14,845, up 20.77%.
Outpatient visits: 75,070, up 7.07%.
Courtney Sherwood can be reached at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter at @csherwood.
With the decline in charity care at every Oregon Hospital, some by very high amounts, it becomes important to track community benefit investments since that shuld rise as charity care declines. With non-profit hospitals the norm, the public has a right to know what they invest and how and when to apply for it.
Lynn Knox
State Health Care Liaison, Oregon Food Bank