St. Joseph’s Hospital posts loss of nearly $18 million in first half of 2015

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center lost $17.9 million during the first six months of this year, as its operating expenses jumped by almost $14.9 million in the period.

That’s according to the financial document it posted on the Electronic Municipal Market Access website.

St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center and its subsidiaries, which together make up the St. Joseph’s Health system, generated revenue of more than $314 million during the first six months of 2015.

The increased expenses included more than $1 million for fringe benefits. In addition, spending on supplies and other expenses rose more than $4.4 million, and depreciation expenses increased more than $6.1 million following “completion of all the hospital’s large projects in 2014,” the document said.

In addition, St. Joseph’s 2014 and 2012 bond-interest expense increased more than $2 million compared to the previous year, “as the 2014 debt was issued in April 2014,” according to the document.

St. Joseph’s has been reducing its staff levels in the last year to address expenses. As of June 30, St. Joseph’s had 3,529 full-time employees, down from 3,638 a year ago. However, the number of physicians on the hospital’s medical staff increased to 845 from 809 a year earlier, according to the financial document.

St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center and its subsidiaries reported an increase in net patient revenue of more than $4 million in the first half of this year, as it added new providers and conducted more surgeries.

St. Joseph’s Health recently joined Livonia, Michigan–based Trinity Health, which describes itself as “one of the largest multi-institutional, Catholic health-care delivery systems in the nation.”

St. Joseph’s Health transferred the nonprofit sponsorship from the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities to Trinity Health’s Catholic Health Ministries.

St. Joseph’s will work with its new sponsor on the “implementation of synergies and integration” over the next 12 to 24 months, according to the document.

Contact Reinhardt at  ereinhardt@cnybj.com