Business

Surge in urgent care visits boosts Pardee finances

By Bill Moss, Published: March 25, 2015

Patients choosing convenience and instant access are driving volumes higher at Pardee's two urgent care centers — a trend that helped the county-owned hospital post strong financial numbers for a third straight month.

The Pardee Board of Directors heard about the positive numbers from the hospital's urgent care clinics on Four Seasons Boulevard and at the Pardee-Mission Health Campus on the county line in Fletcher during its regular meeting on Wednesday. The growth in the urgent care traffic mirrors a broader trend of health care customers choosing convenience and speed over conventional doctor's office appointments.
"At the Mission-Pardee Health Campus we're up 126 percent compared to last year, and this month we're 40 percent ahead of budget as we continue to see that consumer interest hitting our own urgent cares," Pardee CEO Jay Kirby said. "We also had a conference call to figure out a way to approach FastMed about what are they seeing, are there any opportunities for us to work in cooperation and collaboration.
"Folks are not wanting to wait for appointments," he added. "With that volume I think you'll see this is the second month in a row we've had positive operating margins for those urgent cares. So with that comes the good fortune financially as well."
Total visits of 14,044 in February beat the budgeted target of 12,387. Mission Pardee visits surged 25 percent ahead of budget and Four Seasons visits topped the budgeted number by 7 percent. Pardee officials welcomed the gains because budget forecasters weren't sure whether the new Fletcher location would create new business or draw patients from the Hendersonville clinic.
The strong urgent care numbers combined with growth in admissions and emergency room visits helped the hospital surge to a positive finish for the first five months of its fiscal year. A gross operating margin of $5.4 million in February beat budget by $1.2 million and surpassed last year's margin by $2.7 million. Operating margin was 1.8 percent ahead of budget and 4 percent better than the same period a year ago.
The number of surgeries, 3,986, was under budget by nine and 84 ahead of 2014 while physician visits, at 40,823, exceeded last year's total by 4,941 while falling short of the budgeted target by 4,325.