Hospital’s credit rating downgraded

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Because of decreases in business, a small revenue base and a large debt load, a rating agency downgraded the bond credit rating of Jennie Stuart Medical Center this week from BBB+ to BBB.

This means the hospital may have to pay a higher interest rate if it needs to borrow money in the near future.

But Sam Brown, Jennie Stuart’s vice president of financial services, said it won’t affect rates the hospital pays on current loans.

“It really has no impact on our financials at all, currently,” Brown said Thursday. “It’s a little disappointing that we had the downgrade, but it’s happening to a lot of hospitals around the country.”

Guest blogger: Jodi Mitchell

Jodi Mitchell is executive director of Kentucky Voices for Health, a coalition of medical providers, public health departments, development districts, and other organizations. It aims to improve Kentuckians’ access to health care and make the state’s medical system more efficient.

Jodi has worked in health policy for more than 10 years at the state and federal levels. This includes positions in lobbying, strategic counseling, government relations for medical associations, and legislative assistance. She and her husband live in Louisville.

In past New Era stories, she has weighed in as an expert on the condition of Kentucky’s health.

I’m proud to feature Jodi as KNE Health Beat’s first guest blogger.

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The changing landscape in health care is not all politics

One thing is for certain about the world of healthcare in Kentucky, it is constantly changing. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make life easy for the nearly four million Kentuckians who have to navigate our way through the health maze each day. As the healthcare landscape evolves, it is critical that individuals understand their roles and responsibilities as well as those of their providers, insurance carriers and the government. And most importantly, what all these changes mean in regard to their access to quality healthcare. 

Pennyroyal Center’s care takes teamwork

Its staff integrates physical, mental treatment on an unprecedented scale

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Several years ago, Shirley Porter’s depression and physical ailments were preventing her from keeping a job — and thus from affording medical treatment.

She knew she faced the risk of diabetes, and she knew her blood pressure sometimes shot up too high. But Porter, now 49, felt so lethargic some mornings that she struggled just to brush her teeth and comb her hair.

One day, she told her therapy group at the Pennyroyal Mental Health Center her head ached and her arm felt a little numb.

The Pennyroyal Center was in the early stages of developing its primary care center. A nurse checked Porter’s blood pressure. It was 217 over 135 — high enough to cause a stroke.

Blood trail

A circuitous journey from donors to patients

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Lisa Troutman gets an emotional lift each time she donates. She knows it saves lives, she says.

She just doesn’t know exactly how. After staff members bag up and seal her blood, Troutman never sees it again.

On the other end, patients at six Western Kentucky hospitals routinely have blood Troutman donated pumped into their veins.

They never find out where it came from, and few ever wonder where it went in between.

Read the full entry here.

Pennyroyal Center opening clinic to public

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Last year the Pennyroyal Mental Health Center opened a primary care clinic where psychiatrists could send clients who needed medical help.

With an expanded staff and a larger facility, the clinic is now swinging its doors open to the general public. Anyone who has insurance, including Medicaid, or money to pay out-of-pocket can get treatment there.

It will bring two full-time physicians, four physicians working on contract, an advanced practice nurse practitioner and a nurse care manager to the supply of local providers — a significant addition, considering this area’s shortage of doctors.

“We want service that anyone would be willing to go to,” said David Ptaszek, the Pennyroyal Center’s executive director. “I’ve got an appointment next Tuesday.”

Read the full entry here.

Rural health award

For the second consecutive year, the Kentucky Rural Health Association created a competition for health reporting. A panel of out-of-state judges graded entries on their relevance to rural health, quality of reporting,  and impact on health-care policy.

In the daily newspaper division, the judges chose my story on the local lack of leadership regarding sexual health issues as the year's best health article. KRHA announced the decision today.

Read the sexual health story here.

JSMC credit rating downgraded

Fitch Ratings, one of the three major credit rating agencies in the U.S., downgraded Jennie Stuart Medical Center's rating from BBB+ to BBB. Fitch's analysts cited declines in inpatient the hospital was rendering, a small revenue base, and a large debt load.

The downgrade apparently won't affect the hospital's finances for now. But if it needs to borrow money in the near future, this rating could lead to higher interest rates.

In addition to the story in Friday's paper, the analysts' report is available here as a PDF.