Orange County’s largest hospitals posted mixed results on the profit side over the past year or so.
The 30 largest hospitals’ pretax profits for the 12-month period ended Sept. 30 fell 7% to $520.7 million, according to state data and Business Journal estimates.
That represented a big change from the 2013 Business Journal list, when hospitals combined for a 39% increase in pretax profits.
But the list is ranked by net patient revenue, and this year’s shows a 4% increase in that category to $6.4 billion.
Data on pretax profits and net patient revenue comes in most cases from California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. The Business Journal estimated numbers for a pair of hospitals.
Eleven hospitals reported their profits increased over the year, while 12 reported declines. Five posted back-to-back years of losses. The Business Journal didn’t have figures for two hospitals.
Eighteen hospitals reported revenue increases, and 10 had declines. Two revenue figures are estimates.
Hospital employment was virtually flat at 42,135 workers countywide.
• UC Irvine Medical Center came in at No. 1, dethroning longtime leader Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, which had held the top spot for several years.
UC Irvine Medical’s net patient revenue grew 12% to $790.8 million.
Its profit shot up 73% to $53.2 million.
It said its increased net income came primarily from increased hospital provider fees. California’s hospital provider fee program uses money assessed on hospitals by the state to draw down federal matching funds, which are then issued as supplemental payments to hospitals that care for some of the state’s more vulnerable residents.
• Hoag, which has campuses in Newport Beach and Irvine, had a 3% net patient revenue increase to $784.6 million. Its profit was up 14% to $155.7 million.
• St. Joseph Hospital-Orange returned as the No. 3 hospital on the list in spite of declines in both net patient revenue and pretax profits.
Its net patient revenue fell 3% to $540 million, and its profit took a steep tumble of 79% to $12 million.
• Children’s Hospital of Orange County climbed three spots to No. 4. Its revenue grew 8% to $479.1 million, although its pretax profit was down 7% to $34.7 million.
• St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton ranked No. 5, down from No. 4 a year ago.
Its pretax profit fell 22% to $62.2 million, and its net patient revenue was up 1% to $464.6 million.
• The Business Journal estimates that Kaiser Permanente, which operates the county’s largest health maintenance organization, had $450 million in net patient revenue. The HMO, which has hospitals in Anaheim and Irvine, historically hasn’t disclosed financial performance to the state. It ranked at No. 6.
• No. 7, Mission Hospital, reported a 2% net patient revenue decline to $446.4 million, and its pretax profit fell 46% to $31.8 million. Mission’s figures also include Mission Hospital Laguna Beach.
• Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, which is operated by Fountain Valley-based MemorialCare Health System, returned to the No. 8 spot. The hospital, which has campuses in Laguna Hills and San Clemente, reported that its net patient income was up 3% to $369.4 million. It posted a 1% pretax profit hike to $37.4 million.
• No. 9 Fountain Valley Regional Hospital & Medical Center’s net patient revenue rose 12% to $344.3 million. The Tenet Healthcare Corp.-owned facility’s pretax profit fell 21% to $19.8 million.
• Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center, also in Fountain Valley, rounded out the top 10. Its net patient revenue was up 14% to $273.1 million, and it showed a 75% pretax profit gain to $19.8 million.
• The largest profit jump was that of No. 14, Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center. The Prime Health Corp.-owned property’s pretax profit rose 10,904% to $23.4 million. Revenue at Garden Grove rose 49% to $108.7 million.
Garden Grove Hospital spokeswoman Kathleen Curran credited increased hospital provider fees for her facility’s performance.
• No. 17, College Hospital, a Costa Mesa facility that offers psychiatric and general acute-care services, had the largest revenue jump. Its revenue rose 59% to $70.1 million, its pretax profit 840% to $12.4 million.
• The largest drop in pretax profit was at No. 29, Newport Specialty Hospital, which swung to a loss of $814,855 from a year-earlier profit of $1.2 million.
