Beating the press to the punch
Posted on January 31, 2009 at 5:03 pmUnder fire from their docs over belt-tightening measures, the head honchos at Saint Thomas Health Services publish their responses to questions from our friends at 1100 Broadway – before the paper’s story runs.
Among the snippets:
In recent years we have implemented a number of system-wide initiatives successfully. We must do more. We must also grow the services we can and otherwise smartly conserve our resources. As a long-time business reporter, you know that for any organization to grow it must have a consistent, reasonable bottom line which allows it to develop services, improve facilities, maintain quality, keep up with escalating expenses, and more.
We are on track to have a similar margin this fiscal year, but that does not tell the entire story. We’ve seen significant increases in the number of uninsured patients seeking care from us, patients delaying or avoiding care and a drastic reduction in our investment income. All of these forces require that we work quickly to strengthen our health system and protect and expand our mission.
