Despite continued operating losses at Providence and MultiCare Health System, leaders of the two largest health care networks serving the Inland Northwest are expressing optimism going into 2025.

Providence has posted consecutive operating losses in its Inland Northwest service area of $23 million, $17 million, and $25 million through the first three quarters of 2024.

Justin Voelker, Providence’s CFO for the service area, projects the fourth quarter will result in an operating loss between $20 million and $30 million.

Even if the fourth-quarter loss lands at the high end of that projected range, the total loss for 2024 will represent a dramatic improvement from the $187 million loss recorded for all of 2023.

“While we’re still in the negative space, we’re significantly improving,” Voelker says.

Voelker says he expects the improvements to continue into 2025.

MultiCare’s Inland Northwest region has also faced financial difficulties this year.

“Through October, we have an operating loss of about $50 million,” says Alex Jackson, chief executive of MultiCare’s Inland Northwest region.

For comparison, MultiCare suffered $50 million in operating losses in all of 2023.

Jackson says he expects improvements in 2025, however.

“The last few months have been positive,” he says. “We expect to replicate that in 2025.”

Over $30 million of the operating losses in 2024 came during the summer months when MultiCare was making investments to address staffing challenges, Jackson explains.

“We wanted to be intentional in addressing some of those staffing challenges to try to increase access to care in our community,” he says.

In addition to financial challenges created by labor shortages, there has been an increase in care provided to patients who don’t have a source of payment, Jackson says.

“Those numbers have gone up quite a lot in 2024 over 2023,” he says.

On a positive financial note, MultiCare has seen a significant increase in transfer patients from smaller rural communities over the past few months at Deaconess and Valley hospitals—something that Jackson says will help going forward.

Demand at MultiCare’s Rockwood clinics and its Indigo Urgent Care clinics also has remained high, and a pair of new primary care clinics also creates optimism entering 2025.

“We have been making investments in the community,” says Jackson. “Over the last year, we’ve invested in two new primary care clinics.”

MultiCare opened an advanced primary care clinic in Spokane Valley in April and a primary care clinic in the Indian Trail area in June.

An increase in volume also is creating optimism at Providence ahead of the new year, Voelker says.

“We have seen significant inpatient growth in our service area,” he says.

Acute admissions are up 7% year over year, the number of surgeries have increased 1.5%, and the Inland Northwest health care system is seeing 37 more emergency department visits per day in 2024 compared with the year prior.

Providence also has improved its anesthesiologist staffing, Voelker says. The shortage had been constraining the health system’s surgery volume earlier this year.

“We feel like we have more runway going into 2025 in that space,” he says.

Patient volume also has improved as Providence has managed its long length-of-stay patients better, he adds.

“Reducing that length of stay gets folks out of here so we can take care of more folks,” Voelker says.

A new efficiency program Providence switched to this year for scheduling also will help to increase volume.

“This is going to be a grind to get back to prepandemic-level profitability,” says Voelker.