There’s a new No. 1 hospital in Orange County.
Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach tops our annual list of the largest hospitals here ranked by patient revenue.
Hoag rose to the top spot from No. 2 a year ago with an 8% rise in patient revenue to $527.4 million for the 12 months through Sept. 30.
The hospital switched places with UCI Medical Center in Orange, which saw a 10% decline to $471.7 million in revenue on changes in government funding.
Revenue and pretax net income figures for the list come from California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.
Trading Places
Hoag and UCI Medical Center have traded places before. Hoag last had the top spot three years ago.
The revenue gain at Hoag came from more patients and higher reimbursement from health insurers and other payers, a spokeswoman said.
Hoag expanded with the $200 million Sue and Bill Gross Pavilion, which was in its first full year of operation after opening in fall 2005. The Gross Pavilion added more than 130 beds to the hospital.
The hospital saw higher costs: pretax profit slipped to $88 million through September from $94.2 million a year earlier.
Combined, the county’s 32 largest hospitals reported net patient revenue growth of 5% to $4.3 billion in the 12 months ended Sept. 30.
Last year, the hospitals on our list reported a 9% rise in yearly patient revenue.
This time around, 20 of the 32 hospitals on the list reported higher revenue, while 11 were lower.
No. 14 Kaiser Permanente Anaheim Medical Center declined to make its results available. The Business Journal estimates the hospital at $95 million.
The county’s hospitals are among the healthiest in the state, posting $268 million in pretax income, though that was down 17% from a year earlier.
Investment in costly medical technology cuts into income at the hospitals. And the ongoing nursing shortage has pushed up salaries.
Beds, Jobs Rise
The number of licensed beds at all the hospitals was up 2% to 6,494. Employment was up slightly to 34,530 workers.
Three hospitals run by St. Joseph Health System, the Orange-based nonprofit, rank among the top 10.
St. Joseph Hospital of Orange held the No. 3 spot with revenue growing 7% to $384.8 million. Its pretax income declined 16% from a year ago to $10.9 million.
No. 4 St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton saw revenue grow 5% to $326.1 million. Income rose 9% to $53.2 million.
No. 7 Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo reported a 9% rise to $271.1 million in revenue. Income surged 47% to $27.7 million.
But Mission couldn’t keep pace with two others, No. 5 Children’s Hospital of Orange County and No. 6 Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, with campuses in Laguna Hills and San Clemente.
Both moved up a spot from last year and pushed down Mission by two spots.
CHOC in Orange saw an 18% surge in revenue to $288.2 million. Income jumped 70%, growing to $11.6 million.
Saddleback Memorial saw a 13% rise in revenue to $273.9 million. Income fell to $13.8 million from $16.1 million a year earlier.
With Saddleback, Memorial Health Services Inc., the Long Beach-based hospital operator, landed two facilities in the top 10.
No. 9 Anaheim Memorial Medical Center saw revenue rise 18% to $180.3 million. The hospital swung to pretax income of $5.1 million, versus a $9.6 million loss a year earlier.
Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, one of five local facilities owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., came in at No. 8 with $212.1 million in revenue, flat from a year ago.
Fountain Valley posted a slight pretax profit of $158,000, compared with a loss of $5.1 million a year earlier.
Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, one of four OC hospitals that are part of Costa Mesa-based Integrated Healthcare Holdings Inc., rounded out the top 10.
Western-Santa Ana’s revenue was up 5% to $156.6 million. It swung to a pretax income of $8 million, compared to a $2.7 million pretax loss a year earlier.
