BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — It is a step in the right direction today for Boca Raton Regional Hospital's credit rating — reaffirmed at BBB- with an outlook upgrade by the Fitch Rating firm.
Direct from the Hospital:
Officials at Boca Raton Regional Hospital today announced that Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Hospital’s Investment Grade credit rating of
BBB-, while concurrently upgrading the organization’s rating outlook from Stable to Positive.
“We are extremely gratified to see our efforts recognized in such a meaningful way,” said Jerry Fedele, President and CEO at Boca Regional. “Fitch’s latest rating and improved outlook is reflective of the substantive progress we have made in a host of operational areas over the course of the last 18 months.”
In Fitch’s analysis, which was released on February 14, the rating agency cited a number of key factors that drove their conclusions. Included were:
• An improving financial profile that showed the Hospital posting a positive operating margin for Fiscal Year 2013 and an increase in net patient service revenue of 8.3 percent.
• Strong physician recruitment that has resulted in a net gain of 27 physicians since 2012 in key service lines. In turn, this deeper physician base has played an important role in the Hospital seeing its inpatient volume increase by 5.3 percent in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2014.
• Exceedingly strong philanthropic support that resulted in gifts averaging $28 million a year over the past three years.
The Fitch report also highlighted a number of other positive balance sheet indices, as well as the Hospital’s strategic affiliations with the North Shore-LIJ Health System and Moffitt Cancer Center as significant factors in their determination.
Additionally, Fitch commented that should Boca Raton Regional Hospital end Fiscal Year 2014 with a positive operating margin, an upgrade in its credit rating would be likely.
“This achievement is a direct result of the determination and focus our physicians, nurses, support staff and volunteers applied when we established a challenging set of goals for them in Fiscal 2013,” said Fedele. “It’s important to emphasize, however, that while we have realized success financially, we have also provided a level of care that continues to garner national accolades for its quality. I’m extremely proud of our people in their ability to maintain that critically important balance.”
