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Show VVMC Costs Below Average Valley View Medical Center's cost per admission is now averaging $709.57, counting all surgery patients and complicated cases, according to Reginald Hughes, administrator ad-ministrator at VVMC. Meanwhile hospitals in the nation are averageng, $1,072 and hospitals in the Rocky Mountain Region are averaging $1,057.85 per admission, according to the American Hosiptal Association's "Comparative Statistics". Thus, VVMC patients are paying, on the average, about $350 less'per hospital stay. These low rates are made possible by close scrutiny of patients by staff physicians to keep stays as short as possible, by highly productive hospital employees, through IHC group purchasing and other central services, and by other VVMC programs, such as its energy conservation con-servation program, said Hughes. The hospital hopes to stay ahead of inflation by absorbing a 20.73 percent fuel oil increase, raising its fuel expense ex-pense by $5,733.45 per year, but did not increase its prices to its patients. |