Editors Note: This is the last of a three part series. Memorial Health CEO, Maggie Gill, presented the hospital’s annual update to the Chatham County Commission at its semi-monthly meeting on May 23. See part one here, and part two here. 

Mercer University Medical School has its Savannah campus at Memorial. It isn’t a mere satellite campus, but rather, a full-fledged 4-year medical school. The Savannah campus graduated its first class in 2012. Expansion of the school is now underway at the Hoskins Research Building on the hospital’s south side. This will become the permanent home of the medical school, according to Gill. “We offer six physician residency programs, all highly focused in primary care, which is certainly needed in our region,” said Gill. The school currently serves 141 medical residents, despite the fact that it only has funding for 91. “We’re paying for the other 50 residents out of our operating income because we still believe in our mission,” said Gill. “We were founded for the purpose of bringing medical education to this region. We are underserved and need to support these positions.” 

Other growth activities include the Parker’s Emergency and Trauma Center. This expansion was supported by Memorial bond refinancing with Chatham County and a gift from The Parker Enterprises Foundation in the amount of $1 million to establish an endowment fund specifically for emergency care. Gill said the expansion will likely take two years to complete but when operational, will double current Emergency Department space.

The progress doesn’t stop there. Gill said the expansion of the Heart & Vascular Institute this year would add 32 beds by January 2015. In addition, the hospital is adding four outpatient surgery operating rooms to meet the ever-growing demand for new surgical procedures that no longer require hospitalization because of the great strides made in medical technology.

On the fiscal side, Gill reported that things are good. However, the CEO expressed genuine concern that things may not remain so. “We’ve had our third good year in a row, but it is getting harder,” she said. “The Affordable Care Act has not made it easier on hospitals. We are experiencing some pretty significant decreased funding. We’re working very hard to accommodate that.”

Gill’s presentation calculated the fiscal benefit to the community over the past year at over $61.2 million. This does not include some $37.5 million in bad debt, which represents patient responsibility payments for care that will never be collected. Add the bad debt and the cash value of Memorial’s services is over $98.7 million.

At the close of Gill’s presentation, she handed the microphone off to J. Harry Haslam Jr, chairman of the board at Memorial and senior partner of the Savannah CPA firm Hancock Askew & Company LLP. “As chair of the board, I can tell you that our board has 100 percent confidence in senior leadership,” said Haslam. “We are particularly appreciative of this County Commission for guaranteeing our bonds, which has allowed us to do a lot of the programs Maggie just went through; and also your stellar appointments to the [Chatham County Hospital] Authority and the hospital board. They are all very active members and we appreciate that.”