After five straight months of financial losses at Haywood Regional Medical Center, the hospital may have finally stemmed the tide, interim CEO AL Byers reported this week.

Byers said the hospital is now breaking even, and the reserves are holding steady at $3.2 million.

“That’s what’s left out of the famous $20 million,” Byers said.

After HRMC failed inspections in February due to errors in patient care, it lost its Medicare and Medicaid status. That was followed by an exodus of private insurers. The hospital ceased most of its operations in the months that followed, with in-house patients dropping to the single digits.

The hospital relied on reserves of close to $20 million to weather the crisis. Many feared the hospital would run out of reserves before righting itself, but it now appears that won’t be the case.

Byers said the hospital can finally cover payroll and bills out of what’s coming in without dipping into reserves. The hospital is also chipping away at a backlog of unpaid bills, a figure that stands at $4.9 million, Byers said.

The number of patients staying at the hospital averaged 43 in July. The average is close to 50 for August. That’s about 60 percent of the hospital’s average patient count prior to the crisis. Byers said he would like the number to be higher.

The hospital has remade itself since the crisis, regaining its Medicare and Medicaid status and winning back private insurers after passing two top-to-bottom inspections. There has been a house-cleaning of upper-level management, an overhaul of patient care protocols, new standards and training for nurses, and a commitment to making the workplace friendly.

The hospital has hired more than 55 nurses in the past two months and 10 new department heads. A new CEO has been offered a job and is currently hammering out a contract with the hospital board, Byers said.

Byers shared the latest hospital news with the county commissioners at their meeting Monday night (Aug. 18). Byers, who has been providing regular updates to commissioners during the crisis, said this week would be his last appearance before them. He will be stepping down and a new CEO taking over in September.

“I am really sorry you all had to endure the past six months. It was nothing you did and it was none of your fault but because of your support and the support of our community and medical community and employees we have bounced back and we will emerge as a much better hospital,” Byers told commissioners.

Commissioner Bill Upton agreed.

“We all hate that we had to go through a crisis, but the crisis has actually been a positive because we have created a new hospital,” Upton said. “If nothing had happened we still would have had problems but nobody would have realized it. Six months later, I think we will have the best hospital we could have.”