Advocate Aurora Health, the merged entity comprising Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care and Milwaukee-based Aurora Health Care, saw lower operating income in the first half of fiscal year 2018 than in the same period last year.
Advocate Aurora posted operating income of $220.8 million in the six months ended June 30. That's down 20.2 percent from $276.7 million reported in the same period a year prior, according to unaudited financial documents. The health system pointed to $34 million in nonrecurring costs related to Advocate implementing Epic's EHR and costs incurred in connection with the affiliation as partly responsible for the change.
At the same time, Advocate Aurora saw expenses climb 3.5 percent to $5.7 billion in the first six months of this year, compared to $5.5 billion in the same period a year prior. The system said the increase was primarily driven by an uptick in costs related to supplies, salaries, wages and benefits.
Overall, the system reported net income of $281.5 million on revenues of $5.9 billion for the first half of 2018. This is compared to net income of $679.8 million on revenues of $5.8 billion for the same period in 2017.
Editor's note: This article was updated Sept. 11 at 11:37 a.m. CT.