Within four months of its opening, the hospital had a positive EBITDA, and it has increased its profitability each month since. Patient satisfaction scores have steadily been at 95 percent or greater, and patient volume continues to grow.
Mike Staheli, Mountain View Regional’s interim CEO, discusses three factors that contributed to the success of the hospital in its first year.
1. Capitalize on strengths. Four of the six founding physician-owners of the hospital practice neurosurgery or pain management. As a result, the hospital decided to focus its services in these practice areas, making the hospital the only facility in the area to focus specifically on these services.
Although a number of orthopedic, bariatric, ENT and general surgeries are now performed at Mountain View Regional, the hospital continues to market itself as a premiere neurosurgical and spine hospital.
“Because of the expertise of our physician-owners in neurology, we have been able to perform complex procedures here, such as craniotomies,” says Mr. Staheli. “As a result, we’ve gained a reputation for our neurological services and have become the neurological referral provider for our local community and outlying areas.”
By focusing on the unique strengths of its physician-owners, the hospital has become a well-known neurological referral facility for a large surrounding area, while continuing to serve its local community with acute care services.
2. Save on capital expenses by forming partnerships with local practices. Mountain View Regional is able to offer state-of-the-art imaging, including a 64 slice CT Scanner, a 1.5 Tesla Open MRI and a 3.0 Tesla Closed Bore MRI, through a partnership with Central Wyoming Neurosurgery, which is located in the medical office building attached to the hospital.
“Because of the type of procedures we perform, our facility needs access to this state-of-the-art digital imaging equipment,” says Mr. Staheli. “By partnering with CWN who already owns the equipment, we were able to save on our capital equipment expenses while creating a win-win situation for our facility and the owners of the equipment.”
3. Be willing to meet community demand. When Mountain View Regional originally opened its doors, it performed neurological and pain surgical services only. Although the facility eventually had planned on expanding its services, community demand required that expansion occur more quickly than originally planned.
“Our longer-term strategic initiatives have begun to develop more quickly than we anticipated,” says Mr. Staheli. “Our services are becoming more diversified more quickly than we had planned. We have expanded our surgical service lines to include ENT, orthopedic, bariatric and general surgery and are soon looking to expand into plastics. Our services are now more comprehensive.”
Mountain View Regional has been able to offer services that increase the facility’s profits by being open to community needs and being flexible with the original plans for the facility.
About Mountain View Regional Hospital
Location: Casper, Wyo.
Primary services offered: Neurosurgery and interventional pain management
Number of private beds: 23
Web site: www.mountainviewregionalhospital.com
In addition to serving as interim CEO of Mountain View Regional Hospital, Mike Staheli (MStaheli@cvsh.com) serves as the vice president – operations & service line development for National Surgical Hospitals.
