here from our set in the emergency room at arlington -- virginia hospital center is robin norman, theial officer. ms. norman, what is your job and how would you describe it? >> i'm a member of the executive team here at the hospital. guest: my specific focus is finance in the hospital. that is the same as any other corporation. worrying about borrowing funds if we need to borrow. day-to-day finances of the hospital, which includes collecting funds for billing. also includes pay. we have substantial payroll, supplies that we purchase. all of those normal accounting and finance functions you have in any corporation. with all of the complexity of health care. host: how do you remember the coast of things here at the -- the cost of things here at the hospital? guest: it is easy and it is not. with cost at the hospital, we're not making wiggets. not a -- widget. i expect every widget to cost so much. how much supplies, which specific supplies needed for that patient. allocate the overhead as in any cost accounting system in other organizations. so we're able to determine, down to the patie

host: robin norman is the senior vice president with the virginia center.e continue our series looking at health care through the eyes of the hospital, up next, we will talk with the chief information officer and our focus will be on online medical records, electronic records, privacy. we've heard a lot about this on the national level for years in the debate. we will find where vladimir putva medical center thinks abot it. we have talked to some doctors here at the hospital. this is what they are hearing from their patients about health care reform. >> in the past three weeks, i've had patients ask have their imaging studies moved up. for example, we have set timetables were patients will need and mammogram or an mri. in the past three weeks, some studies needed to be done in january and a asked have been done in december, because they think that will be able to be precluded from having that done. there is a lot of anxiety. breast cancer patients have anxiety anyway. but there is more anxiety related to, will they be able to have the care that they need to

robin norman, is there a set cost if somebody walks into the emergency room? guest: there is an initial charge. we see everything from head falls to coming to the emergency room for that, all the way through extremely sick patients with serious medical patients. host: what is the base charge? guest: i don't know all of the charges. the initial visit which is an admission, it is wrapped into that number. even the emergency room portion of it can be over a thousand dollars. there is such a heavy overhead, we're prepared for the worst. for the sickest patient, for the disaster patient. but we also do treat people with lesserilness. host: let's talk about reimbursements now. where does the $288 million a year come from? >> the vast majority comes from either the government or insurance companies that we bill on behalf of the patients who come to see us. we do have some fund-raising activities here in the organization, but they bring us a little less than 1% -- toç offset the funds. host: when you say "the government," medicare, medicaid? guest: yes. host: yesterd

and our series on health care continues from the va hospital center, with robin norman, the chief financialprograms from the va hospital center. our guests were the center's president and chairman. this is about an hour. host: 10 miles from the u.s. capitol in arlington, virginia is the va hospital center. it is a 350-bed not-for-profit medical center. we are live there all week to get a perspective on health care debate. we are live in the emergency room with the president and chief executive officer, as well as the chief doctor of cardiac surgery thank you for being here. as president and ceo, mr. kohl, what are your responsibilities? guest: it is analogous to being the general manager of the hotel, but in a much more complex environment. we are responsible for making sure all of these support services are available for physician and staff. also, i work closely with the medical staff on our quality initiatives, improving quality, also in the financial management of the organization. host: what are the revenues of the hospital in a year? guest: last year in + $280 million. host:, many empl

and we continue our look at health care with robin norman and dvid crutchfield."washington journal" is live every day at 7:00 eastern. >> a couple of live events to tell you about on c-span. the former ambassador to the united states from israel talks about the threat by the nuclear program of iran at 11:00 and at 5:30, a forum on how the japanese elections may affect relations between the united states and japan. >> a forum on the future of organized labor. this is a candidate to become the next president in september. hosted by the center for american progress action fund, this is a little over one hour. >> i want to thank you for those very kind words, and more importantly for all that they do here, to respond -- all that you do here to respond to the challenges that this country is facing. i think that when this -- when historians look back at the last eight years, they will see this at a time when the leaders lost their way. but they will see this as a time when the rest of us found our voices. they'll actually see it as a time when progressives found our vo