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Show HqMHH Expenses . per admission MMMfc, jmgjp woo J cfjAi HOSPITAL COSTS Bill Jones examines chart showing IHC hospital costs are 28 lower per patient than the national average. Health Care Below Average Pleasant Grove and Lindon citizens using any one of the 32 hospitals affiliated with the Inter-mountain Inter-mountain Health Care, Inc. (IHC) system pay less for health care. IHC expenses per admission average 28 percent less than other parts of the nation, according to figures released today by Bill Jones, chairman of the IHC board of trustees. American Fork Hospital and Utah Valley Hospital are both part of the expanding IHC system. The nonprofit non-profit system of hospitals was formed three and one-half years ago to assume control of the hospitals formerly for-merly owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It began with 15 hospitals and has grown to 32 in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Neveda. Jones, an Alpine businessman, explained that one of the major reasons why costs are lower with IHC facilities is the "shared services" concept. For example, he cited the new central cen-tral laundry facility to be used by seven IHC Hospitals along the Wasatch Front. This new cost effective effec-tive facility will dispense prepacked carts of linens at member hospitals and will eliminate the need for expensive expen-sive duplicate handling. This will result in a 17 percent savings for the participating facilities, he said. Another big reason why IHC patients enjoy lower health costs, according ac-cording to Jones, is the volume buying done for member hospitals by the entire system. In 1977, he estimated that IHC saved affiliated hospitals more then $2.7 million on purchases of $28 million because it was done on a group basis rather than by individual facilities. While central management has resulted in substantial savings, IHC still encourages local control over member hospitals. Jones explained that each facility has its own governing gover-ning board whose members are selected selec-ted from local community leaders. These boards, along with the hospital administrators, determine local hospital policy and direct the day-today operation of the facility. "We feel strongly that local leaders should retain control over hospitals in their community because they are in the best position to know the local needs. Such a policy also helps to assure the highest quality of health care at the most economical rates," he said. Jones pointed out that conservative conser-vative fiscal management has been another important guideline used by IHC in its planning for the future. "We believe that our goal of delivering high-quality health care for less is directly related to our financial situation," he explained. IHC currently enjoys an AA bond rating from Standard & Poor's which means that a substantial amount is saved annually on interest charges because of the strong financial security of the system. We anticipate continual growth in both the size of our member hospitals as well as the number of hospitals affiliated af-filiated in some way with us, Jones concluded. But we will never grow so large as to forget the importance of the individual patient who comes to us for care. |