A disagreement over its audit has cost BJC Medical Center its chief financial officer.
Administrator Jim Yarborough said Bill Williams resigned by e-mail last month.
That happened as Williams and the auditor working on year-end figures and reportedly had widely divergent views on a key indicator of the medical center’s fiscal health.
“I cannot comment on that,” said Yarborough, when asked of the circumstances under which Williams left. He denied that Williams had been fired.
Williams and the auditor reportedly disagreed strongly over the amount of accounts receivable BJC was likely to collect. That figure would have a large impact on the picture of the medical center’s fiscal health for the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Yarborough would not elaborate on the spread between the two viewpoints, but he said a third party — a former chief financial officer — has been hired to conduct a similar analysis.
In mid-June, Williams forecast that BJC would end its fiscal year June 30 about $124,000 in the black. By the end of July, he projected that it would end last fiscal year $197,000 in the red.
Yarborough this week did not estimate what the year-end results might be, but he conceded that finances are not the best. The facility lost $156,000 in September, compared to showing a $16,823 profit for the same month in 2007.
As it tries to find a partner to help it build a new hospital, BJC’s financial picture is increasingly important.
“There is no science to estimates on receivables and their collectability,” Yarborough said. He estimated that the facility has $9-$10 million in receivables, of which it would be lucky to collect 50 cents on the dollar.
The audit is expected to be available by next month. Yarborough said any adjustments from Williams’ figures will be noted.
The weak economy isn’t helping, nor is the fact that the hospital has still not replaced general surgeon Keith Ash, who resigned last spring.
Yarborough said admissions for September were “almost identical” to those of the same month last year, “but a lot of the stays were shorter.”
He estimated the average daily census at the hospital to be about 15 persons.
In a related move, the authority voted Monday to allow Yarborough to “shop” around for a $500,000 extension on its line of credit, with the facility’s Finance Committee finalizing the loan. That would bring BJC’s credit line up to $2.5 million Yarborough said.
The last paragraph contains a correction from the printed version in regard to the total amount of the line of credit. The figure in the print version lacked a zero and came out $250,000.
