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Metro: Winter has taken toll on towers continued from PAGE 5
About $40 million in new revenue was due to MetroHealth’s Medicaid waiver program, which expanded health insurance to roughly 28,000 uninsured people in the county. Boutros said the remaining $30 million was through “organic growth.” “What really ended up catapulting us was that we grew some programs, focused on containing casual overtime and involved the majority of the staff in looking for efficiencies,” he said. “That’s why the year ended so positive for us.”
Build, build, build MetroHealth’s loftiest task is how to remake its aging main campus on West 25th Street on Cleveland’s West Side. Boutros estimates that overhauling the campus could cost somewhere between $400 million and $500 million and would require a major fundraising push to come up with the needed money. Boutros’ predecessor, Mark Moran, unveiled a facilities master plan in early 2012, about a year before he stepped down. Other than the system’s critical care pavilion and its primary research building, Moran’s plans called for few of the health system’s structures to remain standing, including the patient towers on its main campus that were built in the 1970s. Without offering many details, Boutros said the plans designed under his watch likely will look different from Moran’s. He said preliminary plans would be unveiled by mid-year, and the community would have the opportunity to offer feedback. “We need to figure out what Cuyahoga County needs over the next 20 years,” Boutros said. “I think it’s going to look very different than in the past.”
When Boutros arrived at MetroHealth, he said he’d like to preserve the towers in some fashion, as they were “iconic” to the health system. However, the recent arctic blasts that hammered the region led to significant problems in the towers, which will cost the health system about $1 million for staffing and repairs. That figure doesn’t account for revenue losses that might have incurred due to an interruption in business. “We had significant issues with the towers during the first snow blast,” Boutros said. “It’s clear that the infrastructure is even older than I expected it to be. We have to do an analysis to see if anything is salvageable.” MetroHealth’s more immediate building project, however, is its new community health center slated to straddle Brecksville and Broadview Heights. The site is expected to be similar to MetroHealth’s $23 million outpost that opened in Middleburg Heights last summer. Boutros said work is expected to begin on the site this fall, with an official groundbreaking slated for late this year or early 2015. MetroHealth’s suburban conquest was devised before Boutros took the helm, though it has begun to pay dividends for the system. MetroHealth saw a 17% increase in outpatient visits in 2013, ballooning to 508,000 in 2013 from 435,000 in 2012, and the Middleburg Heights site is exceeding expectations. However, Boutros envisions MetroHealth extending its reach into the community in ways other than costly ambulatory sites. For instance, the health system recently opened a health clinic at MoundSTEM School in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood, and it plans to announce another in a local school within the next four to six weeks. Over the next two years,
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Boutros said he hopes to have 22 school clinics.
Embracing the community The Medicaid waiver, which MetroHealth dubbed its CarePlus program, no doubt helped the health system prop up its finances. But with the statewide expansion of Medicaid eligibility, it’s possible those enrolled in CarePlus could head to other providers, although that’s yet to be the case. The health system plans to deploy an enrollment van in early March to help people throughout Cuyahoga County enroll in the Medicaid program. MetroHealth patients also seem happier with the care they’re receiving. The percentage of patients who said they “would definitely recommend” the hospital increased to 70% in November 2013 from 59% in March 2013, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ patient satisfaction surveys. “We are busy, busy, busy, and that’s wonderful,” said Julie Albers, president of the MetroHealth employee union. “People are coming and staying here.” Boutros was quick to note that the Medicaid expansion and the waiver program haven’t prevented the uninsured from flocking to MetroHealth. Last year, MetroHealth saw more than 38,000 uninsured patients. Before the waiver, MetroHealth saw about 48,000 uninsured patients a year. “Sometimes you get the fish you’re looking for and other times you get the fish you didn’t expect,” Boutros said. “We didn’t expect to get more uninsured, but that’s OK. It meets with our mission of creating a healthier you and a healthier community.” ■
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