$1.8B in expenses
Mary hitchcock memorial hospital (MHMH) is an acute and tertiary care teaching hospital located in lebanon, new hampshire. MHMH provides a broad range of patient services and health-related community services, consistent with its role as a major teaching hospital, a tertiary care referral hospital, and as a prospective payment system hospital (as defined by CMS). MHMH provides a full range of services in both acute and critical medicine, surgery, psychiatry and rehabilitation for infants, children and adults. During FY 2024, MHMH provided 158,898 acute patient days of inpatient service and had 28,654 total acute care discharges, while MHMH's emergency room was open to the public 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and had 33,374 discharges. Dartmouth-hitchcock clinic (DHC) provides the physician staff for the hospital and the sophistication essential for the development of the hospital as the largest academic medical center in new hampshire and the designation by the federal government as a rural referral center for northern new england. The shared mission of MHMH and DHC is to advance health through research, education, clinical practice, and community partnerships, providing each person the best care, in the right place, at the right time, every time. Consistent with this mission and in partnership with DHC, MHMH provides high-quality, cost-effective, comprehensive, and integrated health care to individuals, families, and the communities it serves, regardless of a patient's ability to pay. Through formal affiliations and other clinical collaborations, MHMH also seeks to partner with other area health care providers to improve the health status of the region. The jack byrne center for palliative & hospice care coordinates MHMH's clinical, educational, and research efforts and visiting nurse alliances around the region to offer much-needed end-of-life care for patients in a clinical setting that meets the needs of patients and their families. MHMH also continues to build its tele-medicine program to provide care across its rural region and in particular to make specialist consultation and care available to critical access and community hospitals. This allows caregivers at remote locations to access specialists at MHMH and DHC and to bring them "virtually" to the patient's bedside. MHMH's connected care center for tele-health in lebanon offers a 24/7 team of physicians, pharmacists, and nurses supporting the following acute care tele-health service lines: tele-emergency, tele-pharmacy, tele-neurology, tele-ICU, tele-psychiatry, and tele-neonatology; outpatient tele-urgent care 7 days/week; and outpatient virtual visits in pediatrics and more than 30 specialty services to patients in 17 clinical locations along with patient homes. MHMH partners with regional colleges, including colby-sawyer college, to support nursing education and clinical experiences for students as well as continuing education and career advancement for MHMH staff. MHMH also provides training programs for entry into frontline healthcare careers through the workforce readiness institute, a program of MHMH that is a licensed career school with the state of new hampshire. MHMH has also established training pathways for current healthcare employees to advance their healthcare careers through continued education. MHMH offers paid internship programs for high school and college students looking to explore healthcare careers. MHMH also hosts the project search program for students with intellictual disabilities, allowing these students to develop transferrable and marketable job skills. MHMH and DHC jointly file an annual community benefits report with the state of new hampshire which outlines the community and charitable benefits MHMH and DHC provide. The most recent community benefits report is available by request. Financial assistance (formerly called "charity care") represents services provided to patients who cannot afford health care services due to inadequate financial resources which result from being uninsured or underinsured. For the year ended june 30, 2024, MHMH provided financial assistance to 22,529 patients in the amount of $28,734,667 as measured by gross charges. The cost of providing this care for the year ended june 30, 2023 was $17,838,140. MHMH also routinely provides services to medicaid patients at reimbursement levels that are below the cost of the care provided. The community health activities noted include the cost or value of several different types of programs including the cost of community-based education, health fairs, health screenings, support groups, and programs and materials that promote wellness and prevent illness. Examples of these types of efforts include partnering with the healthy eating active living NH initiative, the women's health resource center, and smoking prevention and cessation. This category of support also includes financial contributions and the contribution of time and services to community programs, hospitals and agencies. MHMH also provides a significant amount of uncompensated care to its patients that is reported as bad debt, which is not included in the amounts reported above. During the year ended june 30, 2024, the hospital reported expense for bad debt of $41,336,812.
