Avoiding a near shutdown of the facility, Iowa's Mercer County Hospital turned its focus to revamping outpatient care, which helped save the institution, HealthLeaders Media reported. The critical access hospital faced an $800,000 deficit, but by slowly changing the hospital's culture, Mercer County, under Genesis Health System, improved management controls and its finances. In hopes of attracting the local community, it worked to improve outpatient programs, including the addition of a sleep center and expanded physician therapy programs, which resulted in a 60 percent increase in physician therapy volume.
"We asked ourselves what could be done to turn this around," hospital administrator Ted Rogalski said in the article. "A lot focused on growth potential and what could be generated throughout patient care. We focused on what's low cost and high return." Article