Dear Friends of Shriners Hospital for Children (SHC) – Spokane,

What a year it has been since the historic vote of last July in San Antonio. I look back on those days now as if in a dream. Were we really up for closure? Did we really have a town hall meeting every day to tell our staff whether they would have jobs going forward? Was that really Senator Murray and Congresswoman McMorris-Rogers on the front lawn of our hospital imploring the Shrine to keep our hospital open?

Now fast forward to July 13, 2010. As I write this article accolades continue to pour in on how well our Revenue Cycle team and staff performed during the activation of billing and collecting insurance. On July 1, 2010 our system did what no other has done before—implement a revenue cycle program from a cold start in less than a year! Months and months of hard work, countless trips to Tampa, thousands of hours on teleconferences - all in an effort to meet the mandate of the Nobles in San Antonio which was “start billing insurance and do it quickly!”

You will be proud to know that we have done just that. Spokane had the honor and privilege of being one of the first four hospitals to start billing insurance. Call us plucky, or persistent, or down right hard headed, but we felt that we could make a difference if we were given the chance. Our team wanted the chance to show what they could do and they delivered. I am so very proud of them.

I find it ironic that if the vote had not gone the way it did and other subsequent decisions had not been made about the future of Spokane, I would be writing my article to inform you of our progress toward closure or downsizing the hospital.

Here I sit writing today about the success of our hospital, the greatness of its staff and the enduring belief our Board of Governors had in us. I want to publically thank our Board, the Temples, Nobles and their ladies that supported us during those dark days. You all should be very proud of how far Spokane has come in the last year to achieve the potential that you always knew was there.

I feel honored and blessed to be part of the 3rd Party Pay initiative. I thought it was the right thing to do from the beginning as long as we did not sacrifice our Mission, Vision or Values doing it. I can report to you today that we have not compromised any of these for the sake of a dollar.

Why is our staff so excited about billing insurance? I am glad you asked! They feel that by billing insurance they now have a stake in helping stabilize our system. The money collected through 3rd party pay will not replace the dollars we need from the endowment, but it will certainly help augment our funding. We now stand side-by-side with Shriners raising revenue to help support this great healthcare system that we have the privilege to work in. There can be no greater honor.

As always I want to thank you all for what you do every day to support our hospital. We come in to work every day to provide the best possible care for children. Your continued philanthropy coupled with our efforts to raise revenue through billing insurance will guarantee that we will be delivering care in Spokane for the foreseeable future.

Sincerely,

Gene Raynaud, FACHE
Administrator