Pocahontas Memorial Hospital continued to experience financial woes in 2009, posting an anticipated loss of more than $600,000; however, the news for the county-owned hospital wasnﾒt all bad, thanks to Our Ambulance Service, which hospital management says is saving lives.

If the financial outlook remained the same, then the hospitalﾒs year was marked by a change in faces.

PMHﾒs clinic experiment at Snowshoe Mountain Resort did not pan out as planned and the hospital management team decided not to embark on that proposition again in the new ski season.

The hospital board hired Marvina Irvine in February to replace chief financial officer Greg Curry, who resigned.

The board renewed the contract of hospital administrator Don Muhlenthaler, who announced in December that he would not seek a further renewal of his contractﾠ when it expires in August.

Longtime PMH board member and chair, Lawrence Workman, resigned his post in June. Dr. Bob Must was elected by the board to replace him in that leadership role. Dr. Luis Soriano also resigned from the board. Dr. Michael Jarrett was appointed to replace him.ﾠ

PMH posted fiscal year-end losses of more than $600,000, an increase of about $400,000 more than was reported in June. Muhlenthaler said the large amount was because of ﾓmispostingsﾔ and an unpaid provider tax, which the hospital management team sought to rectify by asking the State of West Virginia to reduce the amount owed from more than $100,000 to $63,000.

Financial reports show that PMH showed a profit, but its peripheralsﾗhome health, the clinic and Our Ambulanceﾗall showed significant losses.