You may have seen recently that St. Charles has been positively recognized by S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service, two large and influential credit rating agencies, for the health system’s operating performance turnaround.
As a nonprofit health care organization, we issue bonds to reinvest in our facilities and infrastructure to continue providing high quality, critical care to Central Oregon communities. The affirmed ratings and improved outlooks from the two agencies strengthen the health system’s capacity to borrow additional capital dollars in the future. And it’s nice that others have recognized the improvements we’ve made over the past 18 months, stabilizing our workforce and our finances.
I want to tell you about another sign of stabilization at St. Charles – one that will be more visible to our patients, visitors and caregivers than a credit rating.
Late last year, the St. Charles Board of Directors approved a $74 million plan to fund deferred maintenance, facility improvements, equipment upgrades, growth initiatives and other projects. The total includes $30 million in bond funds for development of the Redmond Cancer Center and $44 million from last year’s earnings for existing needs.
This is another really strong signal that the organization is stabilizing financially. It comes after three years of limited spending on this kind of work across the health system, at first as a cautionary move near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then because we simply didn’t have the financial strength to fund a lot of projects.
Now, with an improved financial outlook, the 2024 plan covers a number of facility projects that will be noticeable to patients and the visiting public, as well as equipment and infrastructure upgrades that will make a positive day-to-day impact on St. Charles caregivers. All projects in the plan were prioritized and selected by operational leaders across the system as part of an in-depth planning process.
This is great news, not only for our bottom line and the caregivers who work in our facilities every day, but for the health of the organization as a whole and our ability to continue to provide Central Oregon with excellent care, far into the future.
As always, thanks for reading,
Steve
