Atrium reports $30M operating loss. COVID ‘peak’ won’t overwhelm hospital, CEO says
Atrium Health took a big financial hit in the first quarter of the year, the Charlotte hospital system showed in its latest report.
Atrium reported an operating loss of nearly $30 million in the first quarter of the year, which ended on March 31.
That’s down $56 million from the fourth quarter of 2019’s operating income of more than $26 million. Atrium’s board approved a plan in early April to open a revolving line of credit that would allow Atrium to borrow up to $750 million to pay for operations related to the coronavirus outbreak.
But Atrium announced good news at its Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday, too. CEO Gene Woods said the hospital system’s predictive COVID-19 model now points to a peak on July 24.
And Atrium’s model no longer predicts a peak that will exceed Mecklenburg’s capacity for hospital beds and personal protective equipment, Woods said.
Mecklenburg County released data Tuesday showing roughly two-thirds of the county’s coronavirus patients have recovered. And county health officials say Mecklenburg has seen a decrease in average hospitalizations over the last two weeks.
Atrium’s prediction pushes the Mecklenburg COVID-19 peak more than a week past the county’s last prediction. Mecklenburg County officials said in early May the peak could hit the county on July 14.
Woods recognized Tuesday that Atrium employees have been hit by COVID-19 too. Rose Liberto, a 64-year-old Atrium nurse, died May 7 after testing positive for COVID-19. Liberto is the first reported health care worker to die of the disease in Mecklenburg.
Atrium has resumed some non-essential surgeries and procedures after pausing those procedures in March. Stopping those procedures resulted in “significant financial consequences” for the hospital system, Woods said in April.
This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 5:03 PM.
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