Amid the turbulent ongoing statewide and national debates over health care policy and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act last year, Elaine Couture, CEO of Providence Health Care, remains optimistic that the complex law will push health care providers to focus on positive patient outcomes and operate more efficiently overall.

Couture says Providence, the Spokane-based nonprofit network of hospitals, physician clinics, and other health care organizations and programs, is flourishing, at least in the initial stages of ACA implementation, in part because of the increasing number of insured patients the law has produced

Couture says Providence has seen an increase in the number of patients at its facilities, as well as a decrease in the number of uninsured patients.

It also has improved access by growing the number of Providence Medical Group physicians and advanced practice clinicians from about 50 five years ago to more than 550 today, at more than 50 clinics in Spokane and Stevens counties. Providence, one of Spokane Countys largest employers, has nearly 7,400 employees in Spokane and Stevens counties.

The health care network has seen a significant increase in its number of patient visits at Providence Medical Group clinics to nearly 625,000 in 2014 from 453,000 in 2013.

The network includes three urgent-care locations in Spokane County that are part of its effort to shift care to locations outside of the hospital.

With expanded urgent-care facilities, Providence nearly has tripled the number of patient visits to those facilities over two years. Nearly 62,000 patients visited its three urgent-care clinics in Spokane in 2014, up from about 23,000 patient visits at two clinics in 2013 when it added its third clinic, Couture says.

Net operating revenue has increased as well during the past two years. In 2014, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Childrens Hospital, the largest hospital in the network, had total net operating revenue of $790 million, up from $731 million in 2013. Providence Holy Family Hospital reported total net operating revenue of $186 million last year, up from $176 million in 2013. Providence Medical Groups total net operating revenue was $159 million, up from $135 million in 2013.

As patient numbers have risen, the percentage of patients paying for care out of their own pockets has declined. At Sacred Heart, Couture says, 1.2 percent of all patients last year paid for their own care, down from 3.3 percent in 2013.

At Holy Family, the percentage of self-pay patients, fell to 2.5 percent last year from 6.7 percent the previous year.

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Providence Health Care begins to reap ACA benefits