The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

Northwest Oklahoma 2

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  • Watonga Municipal Hospital is facing tough financial times along with the nation and many small rural hospitals.

    Watonga_Hospital_2_BH.jpg

  • Roger John, director of imaging services at Watonga Municipal Hospital, demonstrates a CAT scan machine available as one of the services of the small, rural, health care facility.

    Watonga_Hospital_1_BH.jpg

Discussion

March 13, 2010

City, hospital working together to maintain services in Watonga

By Kasey Fowler, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle

WATONGA — Watonga Municipal Hospital is facing tough financial times along with the nation and many small rural hospitals.

Roland Gee, interim administrator, said cash flow for the hospital has been a problem in the last few months.

“Most rural hospitals go through financial difficulty from time to time. In November, we lost a family practice physician. We have also seen some change in volumes of patients, partly due to the retiring of the physician,” Gee said.

He also said it is not unusual for small, rural hospitals to face financial issues during a down economy.

“Part of the problem also was Medicare owed us some money, and we were managing cash flow tightly,” Gee said. “Like all rural facilities, we have faced financial issues, some due to changes in Medicare ... and slow reimbursements from insurance companies.”



Help may be on the way



To combat the possibility of another cash flow issue, the city of Watonga is working with the hospital to try and help.

“The city is considering adding a sales tax to a vote to help pay the loan if the hospital defaults,” Gee said, adding the city has been good to work with the hospital and determine how to help. “We are looking at a line of credit, if we need it. We are trying to work with local banks to help set up lines of credit.”



Work as usual



While hospital officials face difficult financial times, they also are attempting to recruit staff to fill open positions.

“We are recruiting a chief financial officer. I filled some positions we were recruiting for,” said Gee. “We are developing plans to recruit a family practice physician. We haven’t actually established a relationship with anyone to do recruiting. We are trying to find a place in the community for the physician. We aren’t sure if it will be a paid position or someone independent. Once we figure that out we will figure out an alliance with someone to help recruit.”

The hospital is evaluating where to place a physician if one is recruited.

“We have thought about remodeling. We have thought, if we couldn’t find a suitable facility for a new physician in the community, about building a space for four or five physicians,” he said. “We would also like to reopen surgery here. We have a surgeon that is interested in coming part-time, but, again, it is a financial issue.”

Without the services of Watonga’s hospital, patients would have to go as far as Okeene, Kingfisher or Weatherford.

“We provide in-patient and out-patient care,” Gee said. “We have a full-service lab, mobile MRI unit, CT, full-service imaging, a full-time coverage physician and PA in the emergency room that is open full-time. We do medical/surgical care. We do not deliver babies, and we do not do any surgical procedures except some scopes. We have full-time respiratory services, rehab, occupational and physical therapy. We have three full-time, young physicians on our staff.”

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Northwest Oklahoma 2
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