Winneshiek Medical Center is on budget halfway through its 2014 fiscal year

Winneshiek Medical Center Chief Financial Officer Lynn Luloff says the hospital had an operating gain of $496,496 for the first six months of its 2013-2014 fiscal year.

"We're right where we should be," she told WMC board members Wednesday.  However, Luloff added one qualifier--the hospital's financial projections call for it to make double that operating gain in the last six months of the fiscal year, for a total of $1.5 million.

Nonetheless, business is up sharply for outpatient services such as lab tests, radiology,. MRIs, CT scans, home healthcare services, mammograms, occupational therapy and clinic visits.

Revenues from hospital admissions are continuing to drop, following a national trend.  Part of that is caused by a 5 percent drop in births over the last six months.

Still, the hospital is now showing an operating gain  of $2,700 each day.  Luloff says as long as the hospital continues to do a good job of holding down expenses (which were 1.3 percent under budget during the first six months), the hospital ought to do well.