
On Thursday, January 9, I was invited to attend the legislative breakfast Cheyenne Regional Medical Center (CRMC) held. As CRMC is a county hospital, a member of the Board of Commissioners sits on the hospital board. The hospital's administrative staff presented the challenges faced by healthcare facilities across the state to the attending legislators and other community stakeholders. Some obstacles are operating in the black and offering OB/GYN care.
I was surprised that our hospital is one of only a few within the state operating in the black, albeit only by a 2% positive margin. The rest of the hospitals in the state have negative balance sheets, with three of them bordering on insolvency. It was eye-opening to see how the hospital receives compensation through the various insurance streams, whether it is private insurers, the federal government through Medicaid and Medicare, or self-paying customers who frequent the hospital, and how it affects its bottom line.
Also of note from this meeting is the decreasing number of hospitals that can offer OB/GYN care. The Evanston hospital is one of the more recent casualties of this trend, citing a lack of specialists willing to practice in the state. Although most of the information during the meeting centered on challenges faced by the healthcare industry, CRMC staff highlighted the quality of care they can still provide Laramie County residents. This information included replacing all of their MRI machines and other hospital equipment with the most cutting edge versions available as well as the continuous improvement being made to benefit a patient’s overall experience.