March 29, 2024

Greater Regional Health Highway 34 renovations approved

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The Greater Regional Health Board of Trustees unanimously approved a $620,576 renovation of its public health facility, located at 803 Wyoming Ave.

A public hearing was held 6 p.m. Monday to discuss the project. During the board’s meeting, it discussed the initial bid for the renovations which totaled $493,926 in construction costs. A 7% construction contingency for errors and omissions were added, increasing the estimate to $528,501. After the installation of a voice-over ID system to the building was factored in, the renovation budget presented to the board totaled $620,576.

The project is scheduled to begin in early December and will be completed in approximately 120 days. The construction plans to restore the site also include repairs to the back of the building. During this time, Union County Public Health will be relocated to the Union County Emergency Management Agency, 705 E. Taylor St.

Audit report summary

Greater Regional Health’s audit report was given by Steve Schweizer, CPA Managing Partner for Denman and Company, who stated that the hospital is not incurring any new debt, excluding a PPE loan, and that their current debts are “extremely low.”

“You’re meeting all your debt covenants and so, no issues with the bond holders for your debt,” he said.

Schweizer said the hospital had a non-cash decrease to their net income over the last three years due to IPERS adjustments. In 2019, there was an approximate 1.7 million decrease in net income.

Revenues increased 8% in 2019 and decreased 1% this year. Total expenses are up 8% from 2019, including interest expenses up to $68 million, and salaries are up 10%. But unrestricted cash is up $32 million from nine million last year.

“That means you could go 154 days, you could pay your expenses for 154 days without earning any more money or bringing any more money in, so that gives you a level of cushion. These are fairly good numbers here in line with averages of county hospitals in the state of Iowa,” he said.

Schweizer said many hospitals have received COVID-19 relief money this year, including Greater Regional Health.

“There’s a lot of COVID money on the balance sheets,” he said. “... however, the COVID-19 relief money is recorded as a non-operative item.”

Schweizer reported to the board that there were no difficulties encountered in performing the audit for Greater Regional Health, a partnership that the hospital has had with Denman and Company for approximately 20 years.

“No audit adjustments from our end, no disagreements with managers,” he said. “... It’s nice to come in and almost except no adjustments each year, that’s a testament to management.”