Cleveland-based MetroHealth System continued to turn around its finances in 2014, according to a Crain's Cleveland Business report.
The system reported a 3.9 percent operating margin and $35.2 million in operating income in 2014. That's up from an operating margin of 2.2 percent and operating income of $18.9 million in 2013, according to the report.
The financial rebound is attributed, in part, to more patients signing up for coverage due to Medicaid expansion in Ohio, as well as a record-breaking number of visits — more than 1 million — in its outpatient facilities.
The report notes that the number of visits is expected to continue growing as MetroHealth plots new outposts in Brunswick, Ohio and Westlake, Ohio. Additionally, MetroHealth will start construction this month on a new emergency room and outpatient complex in Brecksville, Ohio.
MetroHealth CFO Craig Richmond said in a statement that a continued focus on providing care for more people, improving operational efficiencies and further reducing non-value added expenses will ensure that the system is able to achieve their future transformation goals, according to the report.
Those goals include overhauling its main campus. In late 2014, the health system announced the first phase of the project, which would add two stories to its decade-old critical care pavilion, according to the report. The first phase is projected to cost $80 million.
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