BMC Recovery Continues

by Barbara Mastriania

SOUTH RENOVO – Bucktail Medical Center is well on the path to recovery from its bankruptcy, BMC chief executive officer Timothy Reeves told a Renovo business group Monday. It is currently in the most stable financial condition it’s been in a number of years, Reeves said.

The recovery is the result of diligent work and introspection that has been occurring in the past year and continues. Every facet of the rural health facility’s operation has undergone review. And in every instance where possible services have been brought back in-house at BMC, according to Reeves.

In a telephone interview Tuesday evening Reeves said he and finance director George Gerber are following the plan they developed in the fall of 2014 to emerge from bankruptcy. The plan includes the in-house services, closely watching and greater control of all expenses and working closely with Santander Bank.

The in house services include the purchase of a hand-held I-Stat blood analyzer that’s due to arrive this week or next. It will save money by allowing trained staff to do the blood work during off hours without having to call off-duty technicians in to work. The services also includes

The center has contracted to do the food preparation for the Meals on Wheels program as a source of income.

Currently Reeves said, the review and additional attention is on the lab services. A new I-Stat – a blood analysis device – is ordered. It will enable BMC to decrease the need to call in off duty staff by allowing trained staff to get faster blood analysis results.

On Oct. 2, 2015, BMC filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code. The challenge since then has been to regain financial stability and keep the medical center open. By working with the bank, by careful spending and working with Rep. Mike Hanna to get timely receipt of government funds, Bucktail is looking to emerge from the bankruptcy.

“We’ve done it without having to cut staff,” Reeves said. “We still have the same number of staff as we had when I arrived here.”

Information on a web page reads: “Bucktail Medical Center (formerly Renovo Hospital) is a non-profit corporation, serving the healthcare needs of those in North Central Pennsylvania for over 100 years. The Medical Center is comprised of twenty-one (21) Critical Access Hospital beds and forty-three (43) Skilled Nursing Facility Beds. The Center provides a full-service Emergency Department and a Community Clinic, staffed with a Board Certified Family Practice Physician and a Certified Physician Assistant. Other services the facility offers are out-patient Laboratory, Radiology, Occupational and Physical Therapy. The Center also has a medical service Ambulance staffed with Certified EMT’s.”