Finances
Fiscal year 2008 was a challenging year financially for Dayton Children’s, yet by working together we managed to meet these challenges successfully.
Dayton Children’s has had an ambitious plan to ensure we remain a valuable community asset in the years ahead. The plan includes strategies to improve and expand health care services, to be where the community physicians and families need us, and to have the latest technology and specialists to ensure we have the best care for infants, children and teens in the region.
In just one year Dayton Children’s completed a parking garage and a new outpatient building, added a Middletown location, began work on a Springboro campus, and continued installation of the Epic clinical information system. These and other important expenditures brought capital spending for the year to a total of $28.3 million—about 75 percent above our average for the previous five years. Dayton Children’s was able to accomplish this without adding debt and according to plan, but the large outflows did reduce our cash reserves.
These new projects and locations, along with some important new physicians, raised our expenses considerably. As a result, the staff worked to grow volumes and revenues strongly enough to help meet the higher expense budget. Although by year’s end volumes grew by 3.5 percent, we were a little behind our volume forecast for the year and this required us to make some efforts to save expenses to close the gap. Fiscal control and efficiencies enabled us to successfully close the gap, and by year’s end, the hospital was able to meet its overall budget goal.
One important piece was the Medicaid supplemental payment program, which was put into place by the Ohio General Assembly in the state budget to help shelter children’s hospitals from potentially devastating Medicaid cuts. These funds were delayed for part of this fiscal year, and we literally received them in the proverbial nick of time to help Dayton Children’s meet its budget. Dayton Children’s and the children and families of this region owe a big “thank you” to the Ohio General Assembly and the many child advocates in Columbus for these vital funds.
The financial challenges will not get any easier as we move into the future in future, but we know that with Dayton Children’s excellent employees, physicians, board and its many supporters, we will continue to be successful.
