Tenet Healthcare Trims Its Losses in Q4

By Daniel Connolly, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.

Feb. 27–Tenet Healthcare Corp., the Dallas-based parent company of the two Saint Francis hospitals in the Memphis area, reported that its loss in the fourth quarter was 81 percent smaller than a year ago. It said admissions are slowly increasing and more doctors are sending patients to its hospitals around the nation.

The net loss for the quarter was $75 million, or 16 cents per share, compared to a loss of $386 million, or 82 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenues were $2.2 billion, up 6 percent compared to a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had predicted a loss of $12.7 million, or 3 cents per share, on revenue of $2.24 billion.

The company reported a loss of $89 million for the 2007 calendar year, compared to a loss of $803 million in 2006.

As of Dec. 31, the firm owned 59 hospitals nationwide, plus related facilities.

It didn’t provide a breakdown of financial results at its hospitals in Memphis, Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis on Park Avenue and Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett.

Tenet has been in a slide for several years due to investigations of its Medicare billing practices and other factors.

These issues caused many doctors to take patients elsewhere, said analyst David Bachman with Longbow Research in Independence, Ohio.

Tenet is making a comeback in a tough environment, Bachman said.

Hospitals around the country are suffering from a higher number of uninsured patients and slow increases in patient volume because advances in medicine mean more procedures can be done in other settings, he said.

Tenet said Tuesday that there are hopeful signs that the losses will stop. Hospital admissions were up one-tenth of 1 percent in the fourth quarter, and there was a 9 percent increase in the staff physicians with admitting privileges at its hospitals around the nation.

The firm said January admissions were up 2.3 percent and trends for February were also positive.

“This marks a major milestone in executing our turnaround,” Tenet president and CEO Trevor Fetter said in a statement.

Wall Street liked the outlook, and Tenet stock rose 62 cents to $4.90 in trading Tuesday, an increase of more than 14 percent.

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