NORTH ADAMS, Mass., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Northern Berkshire Health Systems (NBHS) is in the process of issuing bonds as an obligated group rather than the individual credits of North Adams Regional Hospital (NARH) and Northern Berkshire Community Services (NBCS), which currently have bonds outstanding. The Preliminary Official Statement (POS) dated August 26, 2004 distributed in connection with the new bonds and a tender offer for some of the NARH bonds contains financial statements through June 2004. As we approach the actual offering of the new bonds, we are releasing certain financial results through July 2004 as an update to the information in the POS.
Summary NBHS July 31, 2004 year-to-date income statement $000s Consolidated NBHS Total operating revenue $ 55,326 Total operating expense 57,416 Total operating gain/(loss) (2,090) Non-operating income 310 Total gain/(loss) $ (1,780) Note: not GAAP accounting; Sweetwood net sales in revenue line.
For the month of July 2004, NARH posted a loss of $606k, reflecting a departure from June year-to-date results, which showed a breakeven to slightly positive performance. The hospital usually shows a dip in performance during July and August, based on seasonal volume declines, and budgets for this. The dip this July was lower than anticipated, in part associated with the impact of the following events, which are not expected to recur:
* One of three orthopedic surgeons took an earlier than planned medical
leave resulting in depressed surgical volume and inpatient acuity.
This surgeon is back with office hours and scheduling surgeries in
November 2004. A new orthopedic surgeon joined September 1, 2004 and
has been able to cover many of the older surgeon's patients as well as
develop his own.
* Unplanned temporary closure of one of the operating rooms in connection
with the operating room modernization and infrastructure upgrade during
July 2004. This operating room reopened and was fully operational in
August 2004.
* Massachusetts Board of Registration was backlogged and licensing for one
of the new internists took longer than usual. This internist is now
licensed and fully engaged in the community.
* Endoscopy volumes dipped with the transition to the new
gastroenterologist that started full-time July 2, 2004; prior to that
the service utilized a locum tenens (from March through June). Now
that the new gastroenterologist is fully acclimated to operating
procedures and demand is strong, he is fully booked through November.
NBCS' financial performance is consistent with where it has been throughout the year. However, Sweet Brook has improved slightly, due to a process improvement designed to increase Medicare census and Sweetwood had no additional sales in July 2004 since all units were filled or under contract. This led to a smaller increase in revenue than anticipated at Sweetwood.
Northern Berkshire Health Systems (NBHS)CONTACT: Suzanne Stinson, CFO of Northern Berkshire Health Systems, +1-413-664-5513
Web site: http://www.nbhealth.org/
