Van Diest Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Lori Rathbun gave an overview of the hospital’s performance and offered some thoughts on issues relating to healthcare Tuesday night during the board of trustees monthly meeting.

Rathbun said she was pleased with how the year is shaping up six months into the fiscal year and she looks forward to finishing the year strong. She noted that the merger with the Webster City Medical Clinic has been beneficial for all.

“Businesses always have focus areas we have to attend to and this hospital is no different,” she said, noting that she’s been asked many questions about the recent elections and the pending changes for the Affordable Care Act.

“My response is generally always the same: we’re used to this sort of thing –all of us in health care. People in the Legislature make decisions that may affect us or our patients unfavorably,” she said. Rathbun said the hospital has seen many changes in recent years, including the sequestration which took two percent of funding away from the hospital.

“Last year, with decisions at the state level, there was a shortfall of $500,000 in reimbursement.”

She said it would not be surprising if the federal government — with its changes in leadership — would again impact the hospital and its patients. She said she will definitely be watching what’s going to happen at the federal level, as will the Iowa Hospital Assocation.

“Hopefully, there won’t be any full repealing of the Affordable Care Act or 200,000 Iowans will go without coverage,” according to Rathbun. “Hopefully, there’s more of an effort by both (Republicans and Democrats) to come together to fix what needs to be fixed,” she said.

She said locally, a repeal of the act would impact the organization, patients’ access to care and wouldn’t allow the facility to advance initiatives with various entities such as the long-term care facilities, or advancing the hospital’s relationship with Public Health and behavioral health entities locally and across the state.

Rathbun went on to say that the facility continues to focus on hiring a family practice provider and family practice obstetrics provider and to continue partnerships and building relationships with other hospitals. She said VDMC continues to strengthen its financial position by growing its outpatient services.

“One of the top strengths for high-performing Critical Access hospitals is to get their outpatient business lines to where they’re contributing over 80 percent of the outpatient services.” She said current data shows VDMC is at about 70 percent. “So we’re well on our way.”

That growth includes the hiring of another general surgeon, Dr. Gayette Grimm who will assume her fulltime duties at the end of the month, and Dr. Kristopher Bedi, OB/Gyn, who has joined the staff. In addition, the hospital recently added an oncology specialty clinic and Rathbun said she is focused on orthopedics and is awaiting a proposal for orthopedic services.