Whidbey Island’s public hospital district received millions of dollars worth of good news over the last week.

WhidbeyHealth CEO Ron Telles and Controller Jennifer Reed discussed the latest developments during an online hospital board meeting Wednesday. Like rural hospitals across the nation, the financial impacts of COVID-19 put stress on a system that had already been struggling with solvency.

The administration’s tone was more hopeful than in previous meetings.

“We are in a better standing than most rural hospitals,” Telles said, referencing a report about rural hospitals that was “a bit scary.”

The report addressed struggling, and sometimes failing, rural hospitals.

Telles said state and federal lawmakers have “gone to bat” for WhidbeyHealth, which resulted in valuable financial assistance.

“I’m the squeaky wheel,” he said. “I think they’re getting tired of hearing from me.”

WhidbeyHealth received a $1.5 million grant from the federal Cares Act, which Telles described as a “band aid” since it won’t even pay for a month of lost revenue.

The grant will be used to compensate for COVID-19 related costs to ensure that patients are not burdened and to also make up for revenue the hospital lost due to the pandemic, Reed said in an email.

The hospital closed all but one of the clinics and restricted a wide range of outpatient service and elective surgeries, which drastically cut revenues, Telles said.

He said the hospital is losing close to $2 million a month in revenue.

The hospital temporarily laid off 99 full-time equivalent positions, which saves $650,000 a month, Telles said earlier.

In addition, the officials announced that the hospital was authorized to receive a six-month advance on Medicare, which is close to $10 million.

“That’s basically going to lengthen our runway,” Telles said, explaining that the health care system will be able to bring back the revenue-generated services once the threat of the pandemic eases.

Reed pointed out in an email that the money is not a grant and will mean that the hospital will go without Medicare reimbursements in the future until the $10 million is “earned.”

Also, Reed announced that the hospital just received news that it was “semi-approved” for a long-awaited $35.7-million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Officials are in the process of looking over the letter of intent.

Telles said it was terrific news.

“They wouldn’t lend us that kind of money unless they think we’re viable and will be around for a long time,” he said, adding that the interest rate may be as low as 2.375 percent.

Hospital officials had hoped to secure the loan last year but the process turned out to be more drawn out than expected. Telles said Reed ended up answering more than 100 questions from the federal government during the process.

The loan will be used to pay off existing debt, finance infrastructure upgrades and renovate the ER, imaging areas and lobby, Reed explained.

In her presentation, Reed went over financial records for February; she said the slowdown in revenues had already started.

The hospital had nearly 13 days of cash on hand at the end of the month, she said, but that they had lost about six days because payroll was that day.

With the federal grant, the hospital now has 20 days cash on hand, which is an improvement but still very low.

A 2016 report by S&P Global Ratings indicated that “AA+” hospitals had 420 days cash on hand and speculative grade hospitals had an average of 74 days cash on hand.