How did hospital district spend CARES funding?

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
To date, Weston County Health Services has received and used $12,330,272.96 in funding associated with COVID-19 and the pandemic, according to CEO Maureen Cadwell. This funding
came from various places, although it is all tied to the CARES funding from the federal government. 
According to information provided by Cadwell, the district received $4,139,880.26 in CARES funding directly. The additional funds were received through grants, payroll reimbursement and now-forgiven loans.  This includes $1,806,362 from the Small Business Administration, $2,713,389 in state assistance and $469,654.45 from the Wyoming Hospital Association’s federal American Rescue Plan funding. 
Cadwell said that the funding was needed to continue operations of the facilities throughout the pandemic. She noted that there are potentially additional funds out there, including American Rescue Plan funds received by the state, but she is unsure how the facility would apply for those or how they would be spent. 
“As a small, rural facility with a nursing home attached, we don’t know what we would have done to obtain the needed supplies and equipment to provide services to our patients and residents,” Cadwell said in a Provider of Relief Fund report. “The help from the PRF (Provider of Relief Fund) funds and other funding that was provided to us greatly helped us prepare for and provide services during the pandemic.”  
The Provider of Relief Fund report, recently prepared by the facility, outlines how the direct CARES funding was spent, lost revenues during the pandemic and other facility statistics. 
The majority of the funds, $3,229,287.11, was spent on general and administrative expenses including mortgage/rent, insurance, personnel, fringe benefits, lease payments, utilities/operations and other expenses during 2020 and the first half of 2021. Of that
$3.2 million, $1,747,600.59 went to personnel. 
“Personnel was any contract staff or other personnel that were doing COVID-related activities,” Cadwell explained. “We tracked in every department the time that was spent on COVID-related things, including testing in the emergency area, in the nursing home visitations and activities to keep everyone happy, as well as extra time serving meals. Things that were a result of COVID.”  
Other reported expenses include $281,796.96 in mortgage/rent; $204,481.50 for insurance, including building and malpractice; $259,954.85 for employees’ fringe
benefits; $60,307.83 in lease payments for leased equipment in the lab and the mammography; $258,794.41 for utilities/operations; and $416,350.97 for other general expenses. 
Health care related expenses totaled $800,041.53 for supplies, equipment and information technology work. 
“The supplies include personal protective equipment, testing and some activity items for residents in their rooms. Equipment is bigger items, including concentrators and ventilation equipment, as well as other oxygen and treatment-related items,” Cadwell said. 
The information technology portion was funded, according to Cadwell, because of the cyber security attacks that other facilities were seeing. She said that Weston County Health Services was allowed to use funding to upgrade its IT system. 
In addition to reporting on its COVID funds spending, Cadwell said the facility submitted year-over-year lost revenue figures for both 2020 and 2021. She noted that the facility used 2019’s patient and revenue numbers to figure the lost revenue. 
According to the report, Weston County Health Services experienced a drop in patient care revenues of $194,623 in 2020 and $347,205 in 2021. Cadwell said that this was due to many factors, including people staying home and the postponement of elective care. 
From the beginning of 2019 to the end of the second quarter of 2021, the district employed between 112 and 128 full-time personnel, between 17 and 22 part-time personnel and anywhere from 6 to 22 contracted personnel. 
Those personnel, over the same time period, handled a total of 169,646 patient visits, including 601 inpatient admissions, 116,818 outpatient visits (both in-person and virtual), 4,318 emergency department visits and 47,909 facility stays in the Manor.