BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, seeking to recover from a multimillion-dollar budget deficit, announced Monday that a local businessman has offered a $4 million infusion.
Willy Buhlmann, who emigrated from Switzerland in 1970 to found and his Swiss Precision Turning machine shop, is donating the money from its recent sale to the southeastern Vermont healthcare hub's depleted investment account, the hospital reported.
"I'm glad I made Brattleboro my home, and I wanted to give something back," Buhlmann said in a statement. "The hospital is important to this community, and I wanted to do something meaningful to help ensure that people can continue to receive care."
BMH, operating on a $130 million annual budget, has forecast a $7.1 million deficit for the 2027 fiscal year that began Oct. 1. That would follow a $33.6 million operating loss for the fiscal years 2017 through 2025, and an estimated $9.5 million shortfall for the 2026 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, it reported in a state filing.
The hospital has blamed recent deficit spending on past administrative and accounting problems. To cover the losses, it has tapped reserves of cash, investments, and unrestricted assets that collectively have dropped from $53.3 million in FY 2021 to a projected $19.7 million for FY 2027, the state filing shows.
"Willy's gift is an extraordinary investment in Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and in the future of health care in our region," interim CEO David Sanville, the former chief financial officer of Windsor's Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center, said in a statement.
Last month, state regulators at the Green Mountain Care Board adopted current spending plans for the state's 13 other general acute-care hospitals, only to level-fund the Brattleboro facility as the hospital works to further clarify its finances.
Buhlmann founded Swiss Precision Turning in 1990 and sold it to Geokon, a New Hampshire-based engineering and manufacturing company, in 2023.
The $4 million gift comes a dozen years after 92-year-old Ronald Read, a former gas station attendant and janitor, left the hospital $4.8 million upon his death in 2014.
Buhlmann said of his own contribution: "I wanted to make this donation while I'm still alive and can see its impact."
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This News item by Kevin O'Connor originally appeared in VTDigger and was republished in The Commons with permission.