In 2004, Floyd Medical Center generated more than $538 million in revenue for the local and state economies according to a recent report by the Georgia Hospital Association, the state’s largest hospital trade association.

In addition, Floyd Medical Center sustained more than 3,688 full-time jobs throughout Rome and the rest of the state, not including the more than 2,000 individuals employed by Floyd Medical Center and its associated entities.

The GHA economic impact report does not include revenue and income generated by other Floyd entities, including Floyd Behavioral Health Center, Floyd Primary Care, Floyd Urgent Care, Floyd Home Health Care and Heyman HospiceCare at Floyd.

The Floyd healthcare system is the largest employer in Floyd County with a payroll of over $90 million annually.

The GHA report shows that Floyd Medical Center had direct expenditures of more than $139.9 million in 2004, the most recent year for which comparative numbers are available. When multiplied by the United States Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis economic multiplier, the total impact of those expenditures was more than $344.6 million. This output multiplier considers the ripple effect of direct hospital expenditures on other sectors of the economy, such as medical supplies, durable medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. Economic multipliers are used to model the resulting impact of a change in one industry on the “circular flow” of spending within an economy as a whole.

The report also shows the actual cost of uncompensated care provided by Floyd Medical Center was more than $15 million in 2004.

“This new report shows Floyd Medical Center has an enormous positive impact on our local economy, and that makes us very proud,” said Kurt Stuenkel, Floyd president and CEO. “We are thankful for the Rome community’s support through the years and will continue to work hard to ensure that this community has access to quality and affordable health care services.”

While Floyd Medical Center remains a major component of the area’s economic engine, the hospital’s leadership, like the rest of the Georgia hospital community, is concerned about a wide array of economic challenges that have made it increasingly difficult to meet the community’s health care needs including continued cuts in Medicare and Medicaid payments and a fast-growing uninsured population. Presently, more than a third of all hospitals in Georgia are operating with negative margins.

“We’re extremely concerned with the current operating environment for hospitals,” Stuenkel said. “We’ve made a commitment to every citizen of this community to be on call for them 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But our ability to do so is being compromised when, in many cases, we’re being paid less than what it actually costs to treat a patient.”

According to Stuenkel, state lawmakers must work to protect the state’s health care system with the same fervor they devote to other important initiatives like education and public utilities.

“Our local health care system is indispensable,” Stuenkel said. “It is the primary guardian of health in our community and is the key building block for everything else in our community including education and economic vitality. It is our hope that our elected lawmakers will do what is necessary to protect our local health care system and preserve access to health care for every resident of Rome and Floyd County.”

Statewide, Georgia hospitals have an annual economic impact of more than $40 billion and support 265,518 jobs in addition to the 129,000 individuals employed by Georgia hospitals. Also, in 2004, the cost of uncompensated health care provided by Georgia hospitals was $959.3 million.