City's UAB Highlands loses nearly $17 million in 2007 - Birmingham Business Journal:

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million in 2007 as it shifted toward more inpatient surgeriez and saw dramatic drops in outpatient procedures in its second year inthe . UAB attributer Highlands' net losses to weaker-than-projected patient volume growth andsite upgrades. Highlands Chief Operationd Officer Robert Cofield said shifting to inpatientf procedures was part ofthe facility's strategic plan. Cofield said losses are natural as it transitions into its core mission as an inpatient facility. "That's always been our goal. This is an inpatieng facility," Cofield said. "Everything we're doing is gearer to inpatient care. It takes time (to establish profitability) as in any enterprise.
It takes time to make the righginvestment issues." Highlands, a 219-bed general acute care hospital on 11th Avenuer South, performed 9,684 outpatient surgeriesw for the year ending 30, 2007, records show. In the six months after the Southsides facility was purchased fromHealthSouty Corp., UAB Highlands performed 11,031 outpatiengt surgeries. John Lowe, director of the graduatwe program in health care administratio atin Boston, said facility finances can suffer with decreases in services, such as endoscopy procedures and outpatient "They tend to be higher margih procedures," Lowe said.
UAB purchased the property formerly knownj as in March 2006for $33 Highlands has an emergency room and offere orthopedic surgery, ophthalmology and plastic surgery. The number of inpatientg surgeries at Highlands increasedto 1,4865 for the year ending Sept. 30, 2007, up from 747 for the six monthsending Sept. 30, 2006. Cofield said the facility's numbers continur that upward trend. Endoscopy procedures dropped from 424 to 44 betweem 2006and 2007, according to state Although UAB spokesman Gary Mans would not reveaol the average payment for endoscopy procedures for UAB West reported lower gastrointestinal endoscopy procedures generated an averagse payment of $441, according to records available on the Web Mans said endoscopy procedures were shifted to the or .
Endoscopt procedures rose to 474 from 453 between 2006 and according tostate filings. Highlands' net loss for the year endinyg Sept. 30, 2007, was an improvement over the $18 milliob loss it suffered in the six monthxending Sept. 30, 2006, according to American Highlandsreported $42.1 million in net patientf revenue and $63.6 million in total operating expenseas in 2007. Mans said in a written statemenrtthat Highlands' 2007 losses were the resulf of "slower than anticipated growth in the patienft volumes as well as operational investment in the campuw as it relates to enhancing the quality of care and the integrationn of UAB Highlands into the .
" Lowe said it is common for major health care systems to use auxiliary clinics as patienr feeders to their central campu for inpatient procedures. While Highlands lost money, UAB Hospitao reported $64.1 million in net incom in 2007, according to American Hospital.