ALBURY-Wodonga Health has returned its first profit since the merger of the Albury and Wodonga hospitals in 2009.
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The cross-border service has turned around a $1.6 million loss last financial year into a $1.2 million profit for 2014-15 when a $2.2 million loss was forecast 12 months ago.
AWH began on July 1, 2009 with its biggest loss of $2.9 million coming in 2010-11.
The major financial reversal was contained in the AWH annual report tabled in the Victorian Parliament this week and to be presented at its upcoming annual meeting.
AWH's budget has grown from a $130 million to $240 million since its inception.
Chief executive officer Sue O'Neill said a major focus on access to elective and emergency care had contributed largely to the turnaround in financial fortunes.
"We've achieved all our activity targets and we did that with some efficiencies and some improvements in the way we did business," she said.
"It led to us lowering our costs and coming out with a better outcome.
"This result is a really good news story for us."
AWH lifted its performance target from 90 per cent 12 months ago to 99.7 per cent.
One of the single biggest improvements in the last 12 months was recorded in the number of patients with a length of stay in the emergency department of than 24 hours.
The figure peaked at 225 at Albury and 98 at Wodonga in the first quarter of last year.
They dropped to 111 and 55 at Albury and Wodonga respectively in the second quarter before plummeting to a low of two and zero between January and March this year.
In the final quarter of 2014-15 they were three and one and the latest data for the first quarter of 2015-16 shows the trend has been maintained.
"A better better understanding of our demand, matching our capacity, resources and improving productivity has resulted in a series of improvements in the time patients on average waited for emergency care and received elective surgery," Ms O'Neill said.
Ms O'Neill joined AWH in August last year from Cabrini Health in Melbourne.
The opening of a fourth operating theatre at Albury hospital during the last financial year has also played a factor in the bottom line improvement.
A total of 289 more patients received orthopaedic procedures compared to the previous year.
Other steps forward include the overall reduction in the waiting list for procedures that require overnight stay by 15 per cent.
"We acknowledge that targets are not always met," Ms O'Neill said.
"But we are consistently moving closer."
