Chief financial officer at UMC resigns

Adrienne Packer

Monday, Oct. 7, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

University Medical Center's chief financial officer has resigned after money troubles landed the Clark County-owned hospital $9 million in debt during the fiscal year ending in July.

Dennis Morris, who delivered the grim budget update to Clark County commissioners during an August meeting, left the hospital Sept. 17, according to Dale Pugh, UMC's assistant administrator.

While people familiar with the situation said Morris was forced out, Pugh categorized Morris' departure as a "personal resignation." Morris, who earned about $140,000 a year, had been chief financial officer for four years.

"Dennis resigned," Pugh said. "Other issues related to anyone's personnel information as it relates to the hospital is confidential."

Attempts to reach Morris were unsuccessful.

UMC Controller Chris Viton was named acting chief financial officer.

During the August meeting, Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, who serves as vice chairwoman of the hospital board, suggested UMC's financial staff work more closely with Clark County's financial division.

"We're headed for a financial meltdown at the hospital," Atkinson Gates said. The commissioner was out of town Friday and unavailable for further comment.

The county has since taken an "expanded role" in overseeing the hospital's $440 million-a-year budget, according to George Stevens, the county's finance director.

"We're meeting with them more regularly to go over cash flow statements, we're meeting with them more regularly on master plan and capital funding," Stevens said. "We have to monitor things a little closer."

In addition, Deloitte and Touche is performing an audit on last fiscal year's budget and the hospital's deficit. The results are expected to be released by the end of November.

The hospital's outlook this fiscal year is as grave as it was last year -- in July UMC lost $1.8 million -- and it is a strong possibility the county might have to subsidize its coffers, Stevens said.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the county subsidized the hospital with about $17 million to bail it out of financial problems.

Hospital officials say they have lost money because UMC's beds are mostly filled by uninsured patients who can't afford to pay medical bills. Little room is left for paying patients.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the valley's unemployment rate -- and the number of residents without health insurance -- increased, further hurting the hospital's coffers.

"It's as bad as it was last year," Stevens said. "We have large amounts of uninsured patients filling up the hospital."

UMC's finances also took a hit in May, when the federal government won a settlement requiring hospital to pay $1.2 million over an alleged Medicare fraud that involved using the wrong codes in diagnosis to get more in reimbursements.