Publication

For nearly 60 years, Cass Regional Medical Center has proudly been "Here for Your Health," serving the residents of Cass County and the surrounding areas. Our values of Family, Stewardship, Kindness, Respectfulness, Dedication and Excellence drive us to continually improve so that our patients have access to the best care possible. We are pleased to share our 2021 Community Benefit Report, which highlights some of the advancements we made last year associated with our five operational Pillars of Success: People, Quality, Customer Service, Growth and Financial Strength.

People

• We now employ more than 460 individuals, the majority of whom live in Cass County. These jobs result in approximately $34 million in annual salaries and benefits that are re-invested locally through the residents who live and shop in our area communities.
• Throughout the pandemic, Cass Regional did not lay off or furlough any employees. We made additional investments to support our staff during the pandemic, including securing child care coverage, providing laundered scrubs, offering additional paid sick and family leave for employees who were quarantined or who had to care for a family member who was quarantined due to COVID-19, providing support with a home meal service, and offering incentives for picking up additional shifts.
• Even in the face of a pandemic and two surges that significantly affected the organization, our overall employee engagement score improved by three points over the prior year and placed Cass Regional in the top 15% of all facilities that participated in the survey.
• We led efforts in the county to bring the COVID-19 vaccine to the community and administered more than 30,000 vaccines to area residents.
• Cass Regional Medical Center Foundation awarded $22,825 in scholarships to 15 students who are pursuing careers and/or continuing education in health care.
• Our Patient Assistance Fund, which is made possible by donations to Cass Regional Medical Center Foundation, provided nearly $20,000 in assistance to 121 patients.

Quality

• We continued to show strong performance in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' star quality rating system, which evaluates a hospital's overall performance on inpatient satisfaction, patient safety, outcomes of care, readmissions and efficiency measures. Cass Regional received four out of five stars for satisfaction and three out of five stars for quality.
• Through efforts across the organization, we achieved our goal to reduce our Harm Index score by 27% over the prior year, with a goal of getting to zero over time.
• We added equipment and infrastructure to address safety during the pandemic, including doubling our isolation room capacity and purchasing equipment to provide rapid COVID-19 testing in our family medicine clinics.
• We tested 12,372 individuals for COVID-19 in 2021, with 1,476 (11.9%) coming back positive.
• During the third and fourth quarters of the year, Cass Regional saw a significant increase in the number of individuals who were admitted for COVID-19 or COVID-19 complications. This patient population made up nearly half of our total bed census during the month of December.

Customer Service

• As measured by overall rating of care, our patient satisfaction scores and percentile rankings against national benchmarks improved in two of five surveys over the prior year. Areas surveyed include the inpatient units, emergency department, outpatient surgery, outpatient services (test and treatment) and medical practices (including our family medicine and specialist clinics).
• We continued to have strong physician engagement scores, placing Cass Regional among the top 25% of facilities that participated in the survey on the question of "being a great place to practice medicine."

Key operating statistics

Growth

• We added a third day of oncology coverage and a fourth day of rheumatology coverage per week.
• We signed agreements to expand gastroenterology and pain management coverage in 2022.
• We signed an agreement to begin nephrology coverage via telemedicine in 2022.
• Jessica Testa, DO, joined Pleasant Hill Medical Clinic in July 2021, expanding the number of providers in that location from three to four.
• Tyson Travis, DO, joined Cass Regional Orthopedics in October 2021. He provides general orthopedic care as well as fellowship-trained spine care.
• We requested bids for two construction projects in late 2021—an expansion of the oncology, rheumatology and infusion clinics at the medical center and an expansion at Pleasant Hill Medical Clinic to accommodate additional imaging capabilities. Work on both projects is scheduled to begin in March 2022, with completion in 2023.
• We expanded our 340B drug program, generating nearly $1 million, which will be used to fund community benefit projects identified in 2022 and beyond. These projects could include support for chronic disease management, an insulin support program, telepsychiatry coverage for our family medicine clinics, funding for Real World Learning programs within area school districts and additional oncology support programs.

Financial Strength

• We continued to see positive financial performance for the year, even with the challenges of COVID-19. For 2021, our organization incurred more than $5 million in unplanned expenses due to COVID-19, some of which ($1.6 million) was covered under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
• We made an additional principal payment this year on the debt that was incurred to build the new hospital. This took another year off the time period needed to retire this debt. If payments continue, we will retire the debt in 2028 versus the current schedule of 2035.
• We ended the year with 444 days of cash on hand. This makes Cass Regional Medical Center one of the most financially strong critical access hospitals in the state and nation.
• We invested nearly $3 million in facilities and in new and replacement equipment.
• We donated more than $25,000 to worthy causes throughout the communities we serve.
• We provided more than $780,000 in charity care and helped qualified patients enroll in the expanded Medicaid program.
• We returned $1.2 million that we received under the CARES Act to the government.

Categories: Report