Catholic Health admissions, outpatient visits drop

Catholic Health Initiatives saw admissions and outpatient visits drop during the third quarter of its fiscal 2018, and the not-for-profit health system’s loss from operations widened.

Englewood, Colo.-based CHI reported a $35.3 million operating loss in the quarter, steeper than its $17.2 million operating loss reported during the same period the prior year.

The health system’s operating earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization fell during the quarter to $249 million, down 4.2% from $260 million in the third quarter of 2017. The system’s operating EBIDA margin rounded out the quarter at 6.7%.

After adjusting for transactional gains and other items, CHI said its operating EBIDA improved nearly $80 million during the quarter, ended March 31.

CHI reported a net loss of $12.3 million, compared with net income of $178.2 million during the same period in 2017.

CHI’s report announcing the earnings said that its performance reflects the system’s ongoing improvement plan. Total restructuring, impairment and other losses declined nearly $50 million in the third quarter of 2018. Those losses were about $11 million in the quarter.

Operating revenue fell about 3.5% in the third quarter to $3.7 billion, while operating expenses before restructuring fell 1.7% to $3.7 billion.

CHI’s acute admissions declined 7.7% during the quarter to 111,500, while its acute inpatient days fell 6.3% to 555,723. Outpatient emergency room visits fell 4.5% to 464,282. Non-emergency outpatient visits fell nearly 7% to 1.3 million. Physician visits, by contrast, increased 5.8% during the quarter to almost 2.9 million.

CHI wrote that its consolidated results took a hit from the decline in overall capital markets, which generated both unfavorable investment returns and positive swap performance for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 compared to same period in 2017.

“We continue to see strong momentum that has played out in the current fiscal year,” Dean Swindle, CHI’s chief financial officer, wrote in a statement. “We have established a strong foundation through a performance-improvement plan stretching back nearly three years, and we expect that these positive results will continue throughout the rest of this fiscal year and well beyond as we become a truly high-performing health system.”

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