SWEETWATER COUNTY — The Sweetwater County Commission unanimously approved a $6.9 million budget amendment to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County’s (MHSC) expenditures budget for fiscal year 2022-2023. 

The budget amendment will increase MHSC’s budget from $109,082,074 to $116,000,000. 

MHSC CEO Irene Richardson said that while the hospital’s revenues have been higher than budgeted, so have the expenses. She said the the primary categories that were over budget in expenses were salaries, wages, benefits, contract labor, supplies, and depreciation. 

She said their goal is to reduce the contract labor expenses, however, a lot of people left the healthcare field during the pandemic which required them to hire staff through contract work. Richardson added that supply expense increases are primarily to do with supply-chain issues. 

MHSC Annual Report

Richardson also gave the FY 2023 report during the Commission meeting Tuesday. She said over the past year the hospital refinanced the Series 2013 bonds and converted them to tax-exempt bonds. She explained that this will save the hospital in excess of $5 million over the next 15 years. 

Additionally, she said the hospital’s financials are strong and bond covenants are strong. Richardson said that other state, regional, and national hospitals are struggling to protect their covenants. 

“I hear that whenever I go to different conferences around the state and the region and nation,” Richardson said. 

In one year, she said the hospital has reduced the age of plant from 14 years to 10 years. This decrease has come from the hospital adding new assets, which was made possible through assistance from the Commission and the hospital’s maintenance department, she said.  

“That’s huge. What we want to do is make sure that that number is low,” she said. 

Richardson went on to say that the hospital has improved most quality measures by 5 to 7 percent. Additionally, they have maintained existing staffing levels and provided a 2 percent raise in FY 2023. 

She said MHSC is working towards critical access hospital licensure. According to Richardson, this will help the hospital with cost-based reimbursement, which would improve cash flow. All the same services would be offered with this licensure. 

Richardson also discussed community benefits, in which she reported the hospital has provided $71 million in Medicare and Medicaid write offs, $11.5m in bad debt, and $2.7 million in medical assistance. Furthermore, she said through a patient navigation team they’ve provided assistance in the amount of about $2.1 million to residents in Sweetwater County. 

“So a total of about $87.5 million in benefits that we provide to the community, that we are happy to do so we can make sure that all residents get the healthcare that they need,” she said. 

She added that the hospital contributes about $995,000 to the county in taxes. 

Chairman Keaton West said he appreciates the hospital’s openness and transparency in discussing the financials. He said the county voucher system works well, in which the hospital provides monthly vouchers to show where county money is going. 

Other Business

The Commission unanimously approved for two additional sewage holding tanks to be placed at Love’s Travel Stops, making it a total of four tanks at the site. 

Sweetwater County Land Use Director Eric Bingham said they are seeking four tanks total because they need to be able to hold seven days of sewage. Two of the tanks will be empty, but will be used for back up. 

Bingham said the existing septic system failed, so that’s why Love’s is using the tanks. Once a sewer line is within 600 feet of the facility, Love’s will hook into that. 

The holding tanks are currently pumped out on a daily basis and hauled to the Green River Public Works Facility for proper disposal, which will continue until Love’s is connected to a sanitary sewer trunk line connected to the City of Green River. 

In other business, the Commission made appointments to several different boards.

All appointments were unanimous and are as follows: 

• Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport Board: Sean Valentine
• Fiber Optics Board: David Halter
• Library Board: Jennifer Vegors 
• Memorial Hospital Board: Craig Rood
• Museum Board: Bud Allen, Randy Walker, Steve Boyd
• Planning & Zoning Board: Mark Lyon
• Predatory Animal Board: Angela Wilson
• Solid Waste No. 2 Board (Wamsutter/Bairoil): Robert Martin, Butch McFall
• Solid Waste Board (Eden): Michael Boodleman, Tiffany Thoman
• Southwest Counseling Board: Rich Fisher, Melissa Bates
• STAR Transit Board: Virginia Bodyfelt

The Community Fine Arts board appointment was tabled due to the Commission needing clarification on applicants.