Dive Brief:
- Though Boston's Children's Hospital is still waiting for a greenlight to start it's planned expansion, the hospital filed a 15% increase for "supplies and other expensives" in a recent financial statement, Boston Business Journal reported.
- The increase, according to BBJ, was partly attributed to new leases to "accomodate workers displaced by the project."
- The line item for supplies and expensives increased to $229.9 million. Surgical supples and pharmaceutical costs also partly attributed to the uptick.
Dive Insight:
The hospital razed its Wolbach building in April in anticipation to build a 12-floor clinical building with all the fixings, including NICU beds and ORs.
“Rent expense reflects space taken to relocate people out of the Wolbach (building) and other areas that will be displaced by the new clinical building if it is approved,” said Rob Graham, a spokesman for Boston Children’s Hospital was quoted in BBJ.
While the hospital is still awaiting full regulatory approval to begin the expansion, it has stated the Wolbach building, which was used for administrative purposes, was in need of destruction as it was deteriorating.
Overall, the hospital's revenue increased to $755.1 million as a result of taking care of sicker patients. But with those patients came facility resource needs, thus the hospital had to hire more staff (put another way: spend money). This contributed to a decrease in the hospital's operating budget, down $3 million to $20.2 million, compared with year-over-year numbers.