Page 8 - BusinessWest October 28, 2024

Peter Banko says Baystate was hit harder by the pandemic than most systems and is digging out of a deeper hole.
and impacting the balance sheet.
The plan to stem this tide is fundamental, Banko said, adding
that it involves both growing revenue and reducing expenses, and, ultimately, growing revenues faster than expenses.
“That means we have to start growing revenue 6% to 8% a year, and we’ve got to transform our cost structure to get below that,” he said. “We’re still early on, so the more we get on the revenue side, it takes some of the pressure off on the cost side, but we’re still early in the process.”
He said Baystate is not interested in cutting back on operations or discontinuing services, in large part because it is a safety-net hos- pital, and many of those services are not available elsewhere.
Bottom Line
As the system goes about putting a plan in place and then imple- menting it, it will use some consultants, while also drawing on some of the lessons generated by providers who have managed to recover financially from the pandemic quicker than most others.
There are only a handful of those, Banko said, stressing, again, that most systems — in this region, across New England, and across the country — are fighting the same battle, although Baystate has a deeper hole from which to dig out.
“We got hit harder — our fall, post-pandemic, was further than most systems, and our recovery has been slower,” he noted, adding that those that recovered faster made the hard decisions earlier.
As noted earlier, Banko has considerable experience with turn- around projects. He’s confronted them at several of his earlier career stops, including Centura Health in Colorado, and others as a turn-around specialist in New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas, Pennsylva- nia, and elsewhere.
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“We have a clear path, and if we execute on the path, we’re going to be healthy and growing and thriving for the next 140 years.”
Baystate
Continued from page 6
As he looked around his office at the system’s corporate headquarters
Baystate
Continued on page 33
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8 OCTOBER 28, 2024
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