Erlanger Health Center trustees were told Thursday that the coronavirus has dealt the hospital a $48 million revenue blow through the end of April.
Britt Tabor, finance director, said the revenue drop in March was $13 million and in April $30 million.
However, he said the hospital has been buoyed by the fact it was one of the first hospitals to implement a serious cost containment plan and by the receipt of federal government Stimulus checks.
Mr. Tabor said the cuts made early on following the arrival of COVID-19 are saving up to $12 million a month.
He also said Erlanger has received almost $28 million in Stimulus money and is hoping for more.
Mr. Tabor said the hospital received $13.9 million in the first round for hospitals and $5.9 million in the second. The third, he said, was mainly for rural providers. Erlanger's Western Carolina facility at Murphy, N.C., got $4.4 million and the Bledsoe unit received $3.4 million.
The finance chief said it is hoped there will be another round of federal help for hospitals aimed at those who are "safety net" facilities such as Erlanger with high numbers of those on Medicaid and uninsured.
He noted that Children's Hospital has also been affected, but has received no Stimulus help.
Mr. Tabor said for April inpatient surgeries were down 42 percent and outpatient surgeries 70 percent. He said physician visits dropped 26 percent.
He said the latter number was not much higher because Erlanger went quickly to frequent use of tele-medicine. He noted that Blue Cross has just announced it will continue funding tele-medicine.
Mr. Tabor said emergency room visits were down 45 percent. However, he said more acute patients were coming in and many wound up staying at the hospital.
He said Erlanger has some $100 million cash on hand and through at least the end of the fiscal year does not expect to have to dip into a line of credit or $93.1 million in advance Medicare payment funds.
Dr. Will Jackson, Erlanger president, said the early move to the personnel savings "has been vindicated."
He said, "The early swift action was necessary for Erlanger's long-term viability."
Dr. Jackson also said, "We were fortunate that we have not seen a surge in COVID patients." However, he said the hospital is prepared should one still occur.