After years of record expansion, Erlanger Health System officials are looking to invest their limited capital in rebuilding the hospital’s infrastructure for the future.
The budget and finance committee for the Erlanger Board of Trustees got its first glimpse Monday night of the proposed capital budget for the upcoming 2021 fiscal year, which begins July 1. The hospital’s budget process would normally begin in April but was postponed until May to give officials more time to assess the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Erlanger management received $110 million worth of capital requests from departments across the health system, according to Steve Burkett, the hospital’s interim vice president of strategy and business development. Of that, Burkett said about $75 million worth of requests were deemed needed, but Erlanger has $20 million to spend on capital.
Burkett said he believed the $20 million spend is a conservative, sound use of assets.
“There’s a legitimate issue with Erlanger having deferred some maintenance, financing growth, et cetera,” Burkett said. “There is a priority to re-establishing the foundation so that we can position ourselves for better days in the future.”