2005 Annual Report for Lasata Care Center

The Lasata budgeted operating deficit for 2005 was $637,034. This deficit was to be covered with $350,000 from the Lasata Reserves and $287,034 of County Tax Levy. The un-audited year-end financial reports show an operating surplus of $164,200. Therefore the Levy appropriation and the transfer from Lasata Reserves were not needed to meet operating expenses. These dollars will remain in the Lasata Reserve account.

Operating revenues were $137,600 below budget. We did have a lower than budgeted number of Medicare and Private Pay residents resulting in room and board revenues of $674,000 below budget. However, we received state and federal funds from the IGT (Intergovernmental Transfer Program) that were $703,500 higher than budgeted.

Operating expenses were $581,400 below budget. Reasons included lower than expected costs for wages and fringes (especially workers compensation) and continued savings in purchases of supplies and materials.

Major capital improvement projects completed this past year were finishing the renovation of the 4 passenger elevators, repairs and upgrades to several air conditioning units, remodeling of medication storage rooms and installation of a new emergency nurse call system on the west side of the facility.

In cooperation with the Cedarburg Light and Water Utility we received a State of Wisconsin Public Benefits Program credit of $23,796 towards our electric bill, this lowered our total electric bill by 25% and also helped to offset the large increases we had for other utilities. We have now received nearly $103,000 in credits from this program in the past 5 years. Two years ago we made adjustments to our heating system so that in the summer months we are able to shut down our natural gas powered boilers instead of having them run in a low-idle mode. This is saving us nearly $2,500 per year in energy costs.

Occupancy levels in Wisconsin nursing homes continue to average about 89% while Lasata’s average occupancy was 96.5% (195.8 beds filled daily). Twenty one percent of our residents were Private Pay funded, 75% were Medicaid (T19), and 4% were Medicare (T18). These totals are very close to state averages although we had budgeted a higher Private Pay and lower Medicaid census.

Ninety-one percent of our new admissions were Ozaukee County residents prior to being admitted, 9% had a relative who qualified as a County resident and none of our new admissions were considered non-County residents (those having no relatives living in Ozaukee County).

A total of 105 new residents were admitted during the past year. Sixty one percent came from an acute care hospital with Medicare coverage. Fourteen admissions came from the Lasata Heights apartments and 9 stayed here permanently. Ninety-two residents were permanently discharged during the past year. Ten years ago only 20% of all residents admitted to Lasata returned home or went to a less institutional living arrangement. Over 41% of the residents that were discharged did return home, or went to a lesser or non-institutional setting.

Over 44% of our residents had Alzheimer’s, dementia or some other brain disorder as their primary diagnosis. Another 20% were diagnosed with heart attack or stroke and 20% were diagnosed with paralysis, fractures or a skeleto-muscular disease such as Muscular Dystrophy or Multiple Sclerosis.

The average age of all residents was 84.7 years, the youngest was 40 and the oldest was 103 years old. There were 6 residents under the age of 55 and 5 residents were over 100 years old, requiring our staff to meet the physical, medical and social needs of a very diverse population.

The average length of stay has decreased to 2.8 years and 80% of our current residents had resided with us less than 5 years. On the opposite end of the spectrum was one resident who was with us for over 22 years.

Employee turnover rates are calculated as the number of employees that leave a position compared to the number of total positions available. Over the past 4 years our nursing assistant turnover rate has dropped from 43% to 30%, well below the state average of 50%. Our turnover rate for licensed nurses has dropped from 25% to 22% while the state average remains steady at 34%.

Our combined nurses and nursing assistant staffing ratio was at 130% of the state required minimum level. The state average for all nursing homes was 142%. This means that while Lasata staffs at 30% above the state minimum requirements we also staff 12% below the average nursing home. This lower staffing ratio has helped reduce Lasata’s expenses and so far has not affected the quality of resident care.

We received a deficiency-free licensure survey for the third year in a row from the State of Wisconsin Bureau of Quality Assurance. This supports our belief that we continue to provide a high level and quality of care to our residents after implementation of several new streamlined and more efficient operating procedures.

Goals for 2006 include continued retention and recruitment of qualified licensed nurses and nursing assistants. We hope to have a deficiency-free state survey for the fourth year in a row. We will continue to explore the feasibility of expansion into other programs that may compliment or enhance our services and mission. Internally we will continue to upgrade and modify our physical plant to increase the comfort for our residents and efficiency of our staff.