Program areas at Marion Regional Medical Center
NMMC-Hamilton serves Marion county Alabama and the surrounding area. In fiscal year 2023, there were 428 inpatient admissions, 7,010 emergency department visits, 38,741 outpatient visits, 23,564 rural health clinic visits AND 739 HOSPITAL BASED CLINIC VISITS. NMMC-Hamilton uses Press Ganey, the largest patient satisfaction survey company in the nation, that works with more than 7,000 healthcare facilities. Randomly selected patients are asked about their experience with inpatient, outpatient, ER, and long term care services. The four-bed Intensive Care Unit offers invasive and non-invasive monitoring for medical and surgical patients. The hospital also has 10 certified swing beds for patients who need extended care. NMMC-Hamilton offers 24-hour emergency services. The Emergency Room is staffed by well-equipped, highly qualified nurses and physicians. Emergency air ambulance services are readily available for critical care transport when needed. Outpatient services include same-day surgery, physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, laboratory and cardiac monitoring. Cardiac stress tests and holter monitoring are also offered. NMMC-Hamilton is the recipient of the VHA Leadership Award, honoring the hospital for meeting or exceeding national performance standards for clinical care and quality. VHA serves more than 1,400 not-for-profit hospitals and more than 24,000 non-acute health care organizations nationwide. NMMC-Hamilton was one of only 38 VHA member organizations to receive a 2009 Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence.
One of the primary ways NMMC-Hamilton serves the community is by providing care to various populations for which it receives no compensation or receives compensation at rates significantly less than established rates. The board of directors of NMMC-Hamilton has established a policy under which the hospital provides care, without charge, to needy members of its community. THE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE POLICY STATES THAT NMMC-HAMILTON WILL PROVIDE EMERGENCY AND MEDICALLY NECESSARY INPATIENT AND OUTPATIENT HOSPITAL SERVICES TO PATIENTS FREE OF CHARGE WITH HOUSEHOLD INCOME LEVELS AT OR BELOW 150% OF THE FEDERAL POVERTY LEVEL. The policy applies to individuals who reside in Marion County. Patients from outside the county may also be granted charity care based on the judgment of NMMC-Hamilton management depending on their individual circumstances. The policy also requires the patient to cooperate fully with NMMC-Hamilton's request for information with which to verify the patient's eligibility. Following that policy, the hospital maintains records to identify and monitor the level of charity care it provides. These records include the amount of charges forgone for services and supplies furnished under its charity care policy. Charges forgone, based on established rates, totaled approximately $1,380,084 in fiscal year 2023. Based on the gross charges provided to charity patients compared to total hospital gross charges, 4.31% of all services in fiscal year 2023 were provided on a charity basis. The net cost of charity care provided by NMMC-Hamilton was approximately $1,082,374 in fiscal year 2023. The total cost estimate is based on the ratio of costs to charges for NMMC-Hamilton. All of the forgone charges mentioned above are netted against patient service revenue to arrive at net patient service revenue as reflected as program service revenue on Part VIII on Form 990 in order to be consistent with financial statement reporting and are not reported as functional expenses on the tax return.