The health system disclosed on Monday that after serving as the CEO of Oak Park Hospital of the Rush University Health System, Dr. Dino Rumoro discovered that a former executive may have embezzled money.

The Chicago-based Academic Health System said it is currently investigating the issue at its Rush Oak Park Hospital with the help of external forensic auditors and legal counsel. Rush disclosed this information in the financial statements for the quarter ended September 30.

Bruce elegant Retire in June After serving as CEO of Rush Oak Park Hospital for more than 20 years. Rumoro took over as CEO of the hospital on July 1.

Rush spokesperson Tobin Klinger confirmed in an email that Rumoro is one of the new leaders who discovered potential misappropriation. He declined to disclose the “former executives” mentioned in Rush’s financial disclosures.

“With the arrival of the new leadership at Oak Park, potential embezzlement of funds was discovered,” Klinger said. “We immediately initiated the current internal investigation.”

Rush said the estimated amount involved will not have a significant impact on the overall financial health of the health system.

Rush’s Oak Park Hospital is located approximately 8 miles west of Chicago’s main medical center and has 185 beds. In addition to traditional community hospital services, it also provides diabetes care, orthopedics and radiotherapy. There are three hospitals in Rush: Rush Oak Park, its flagship Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and the Rush Copley Medical Center in Aurora, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

In the quarter ended September 30, Rush’s operating profit margin fell by more than half year-on-year. The system stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused damage to its finances.

In the quarter ended September 30, Rush had operating income of $24 million, revenue of $774.4 million, and a profit margin of 3.1%. In comparison, the revenue in the same period last year was 47.2 million US dollars, the revenue was 734 million US dollars, and the profit margin was 6.4%.

Compared to the same period in 2020, Rush’s admissions for the quarter ended September 30 were virtually flat—a decrease of 0.7%. In the same period, the number of inpatient operations fell by nearly 17%, although the number of outpatient operations increased by 8%. Although the occupancy rates of Chicago and Aurora Rush hospitals have increased year-on-year, they have fallen from approximately 45% in 2020 to approximately 29% in the recently concluded quarter.

The Office of the Inspector General of the Ministry of Health and Human Services found in 2019 that Rush’s billing errors caused Medical insurance overpayment of more than 20 million U.S. dollars Used for inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation claims. Rush disputed the overpayment.

Rush was called for owning one of Chicago’s less cost-effective hospitals The latest report from the Lown Institute, a healthcare think tankThe report estimates that if the cost per patient for 30 days at Rush University Medical Center (US$16,372) is the same as Advocate Illinois Mason Medical Center’s US$12,913, then Medicare would save US$27.5 million annually.