Landing On His Feet....11/13

Like a big cat, Hud has apparently landed on his feet...so to speak. I'm not talking about a large jungle cat, more like Garfield. Just less cuddly.

Those who can, do. Those who can't, consult. Hud is now apparently a CEO in Performance Management Institute (seminars), and consults under Stroudwater Associates, as well. If you follow the link, the bio seems to leave out significant parts of his career, but that's just Hud.

ARCON has disappeared, and various other head, er..milestones have been milled down, but it's Hud, just the same.

How Does It Stay Afloat?....1/1

I have been remiss, and not checking the site American Hospital Directory (AHD.com). Some new figures have come in which make the Essent Healthcare Corporation's future a bit more uncertain. Only one hospital is listing a profit: Sharon Hospital. The rest are swimming in red ink. The rundowns are as such:

Sharon Hospital********78beds $1,889,467
PRMC*****************255beds -$508,231
NVMC******************57beds -$638,864
SWMC******************73beds -$2,411,841
MVH*******************138beds -$4,323,137

Total********************601beds -$6,001,606 net annual loss

The names of the hospitals are also links to the full listing for each under the free information section of AHD.com. Note: The information included is provided by Essent itself.

These figures do not reflect the current crisis. The disclaimers on the pages indicated that these are last year's figures, and in part 2006! So, it doesn't show the construction costs, the locums, the RHCs, and so on....

You would think that the various newspapers in these communities would have picked up on the downward trend, but, then again, they missed the firing of Hud (by almost a month!), and locally the Knizely dismissal. When I can scoop them, just using my limited resources, what are their reporters doing?

Sub-lime or Sub-prime....2/26

Does the current credit crunch bode well for Essent? For PRMC alone, they borrow to pay their payroll, and with a half-million dollar loss/yr, how does this keep them out of sub-prime status?

With the last financing, Essent included a rolling line of credit, possibly against such an event. Otherwise, in the current financial situation, the money might not be available. Hopefully the institutions that offered that line of credit are still able to fulfill their commitment.

If not, meeting payroll for all the hospitals might be a financial nightmare. Essent borrows month-to-month to make payroll--a fairly common practice. But with credit tightening.....

One wonders how other hospital groups that are also in the same category are able to maintain?