DCHS Has Rough Start to 2009

An area hospital that made money in 2008 is having a rough financial start to this year.

Dickinson County Healthcare System finished last year more than $330,000 in the black.

But it only took 2 months to wipe that out and then some.

DCHS is saying it lost more than $460,000 in January and February.

They say the number of patients using the hospital’s services was up in January and only down a little bit in February.

But hospital officials say they’re not being reimbursed for those services as frequently as they’d like.

The recession has forced the hospital to put a hiring freeze in place on non-essential jobs and a buying freeze on non-essential goods.