Memorial Health System sets $36.5 million budget

He said some of the services are returning to 100 percent.

“We developed some assumptions for revenue,” he told the Board of Directors at a special budget hearing last week.

The board unanimously approved the $36.5 million budget that shows Memorial Health System breaking even at the end of the year.

Board members Tony Geiger and Julie Beswick met with the executive team to help craft the budget.

“We sat here last year and approved a budget and thought it was pretty realistic,” Geiger said. “And a little thing came along that starts with a C and ends in a 9. It blew that out of the water completely. It’s kind of like I used to do budgets for farmers. We’d put a perfect budget together and you’d get a drought or a tornado. Something can always happen but I think the numbers used here could be leaning a little conservative.”

Beswick said all of the assumptions are very reasonable.

“None of the numbers stood out to me as being unreasonable,” she said. “I think there are a lot of positives for us to look foreward this year. I have no issues with the budget.”

“We work really hard to say ‘Is this a valid assumption?’” Glanzer said.

He said that a surgeon is expected to join the hospital in July so an increase in those procedures in anticipated.

“Thirty percent sounds like a lot but I think that is a reasonable number because if we have someone here on site, that should be a whole different animal.”

Glanzer said that over 60 percent of the revenue comes from Abilene Memorial Hospital.

Memorial Health does receive some revenue through the 2 mills in property taxes. However, the tax is less than 1 percent of the total budget.

Contact Tim Horan at editor@abilene-rc.com.