About a week before the end of the fiscal year, Erlanger hospital budget committee members faced a flurry of last-minute resolutions authorizing capital expenditures on Monday night.
At their monthly meeting, committee members gave preliminary approval to $5.8 million worth of purchases, upgrades and projects, ranging from an upgraded nurse-call system to the addition of 115 new computers to be placed in patient rooms.
MAY FINANCIALS* May 2010 income: $95,654* Year-to-date income: $1.1 million* Budgeted year-to-date income: $9.3 million* Prior year, year-to-date income: $1.8 million* Uncompensated care, year-to-date: $73.2 millionSource: Erlanger financial records
The resolutions still must be approved by the hospital’s board of trustees at the Thursday board meeting.
Committee Chairman Donnie Hutcherson, an accountant, assured committee members at the start of the meeting that the stack of resolutions in their meeting packets wouldn’t break the bank.
“If these are approved, we will still be $1 million, approximately, under our capital budget for the year,” which is $27.3 million total, he said.
Among the resolutions approved:
* A $1.5 million resolution to purchase and construct space for a 64-slice CT scanner, aimed to ease the burden on an existing 16-slice CT scanner in the increasingly busy ER at the Baroness campus on East Third Street.
* A $931,767 authorization to contract for the installation and construction of a vault to house a new linear accelerator, purchased earlier this year to bolster the hospital’s cancer program.
* The $303,000 purchase of a “Patient Keeper” system to allow clinicians to use their mobile smart phones, such as a BlackBerry, to remotely access patients’ electronic medical records.
Committee members also gave their approval to Erlanger’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The document budgets a $9.2 million profit next year.
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