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Last Updated: Mar 1st, 2010 - 16:58:10 |
January was a record-setting month at Wayne County Hospital, with gross revenues of $2.07 million. Hospital CEO Brian Burnside said this is the first time the hospital has been above the $2 million mark for a single month.
Keith Helseth, WCH Revenue Cycle Director, was at the meeting with an indepth financial report and a break-down of percentages of revenues by department.
Board member and treasurer Darrell Cook noted year over year numbers were up in all departments except one. “With these volumes the hospital is doing very, very well,” Cook said.
Burnside said on the day of the meeting there were 17 patients in the hospital’s 25 beds.
Cook reported on the hospital’s budget proposal to the county. “We haven’t asked for any increase in the tax rate,” he said. “That goes back to the hospital’s pledge to the community to not raise taxes to pay for the renovation.”
The list of uncollectable debts, at $51,805, was nearly double the usual monthly amount. The board was told the large figure comes from efforts being made to clear up some “back items.”
Rural Health Care Conference
Burnside asked board members Jill Tueth, Bill Wells and Cook for their comments from Rural Health Care Leadership Conference in Pheonix, Ariz.
“We keep hearing change is coming, but it sounds like it has already happened,” Tueth said. “Employers and employees and even the government can’t afford health care. This is new water to tread.”
Tueth said with different technology in place the hospital has a lot to offer.
“You’ve got to change and change may not be easy. This group survived and thrived through quite a renovation,” Tueth said.
Wells held an extensive list of recommendations for the hospital’s future.
Think outside the box, embrace change, keep connumications open, continue the futuristic look, keep the team going and operate at the Medicare rembursement rate are just a few of the ideas he brought back from networking with other rural hospital officials.
He also said the board needs a “board member communication plan” in case the hospital ever has a big problem and a plan “to handle how we disagree.”
Cook suggested the hospital implement ideas from a Nebraska hospital, including a change in the way patient transfers from one department to another inside the hospital are handled, as that seems to be an area where errors could occur. “We talk a lot about outside transfers, maybe we need to look at internal transfers,” he said.
Quality improvement
Burnside reported a “great meeting” of the quality improvement committee. He said watch continues on a number of items in dialysis, where WCH compares favorably with state-wide reports. Also, they are looking at radiology turn-around times and tracking night-time reads compared to standard reads.
Members of the board questioned an item on the quality improvement report. They were told the hospital has no control over patients who are noncompliant and miss scheduled treatments, which apparently was showing up as a negative on the QI report. That is a patient’s choice.
Due to the nature of the QI report and patient information involved, more specific information is not made public.
Other business
In other business, the board--
• heard Burnside is making progress on a Transition Plan Binder that should help the board and administration work through transition to a new CEO.
“I am trying my doggone best to document everything I know and to have documents ready for new leadership,” Burnside told the board as he displayed a thick binder.
• learned a renewal contract for services with Bloomfield Anesthesia Group should be ready by the next board meeting.
• heard a summertime installation is possible for e-ICU, technology that will allow WCH to connect with Mercy Medical Center ICU staff. Using e-ICU, staff at WCH will be able to offer intensive care service in Corydon.
• heard hospital staff will soon start spring cleaning, going through and cleaning up areas where “junk” accumulated during construction.
• heard an invitation to attend Iowa Hospital Association’s legislative day at the Iowa Statehouse.
• heard from Sara Drobnich of Mercy Medical Center.
• discussed the possibilties of the hospital assisting with improvements on the street north of the hospital. Board member Donald Besco asked if the hospital could do something on their own to improve the street, which he called “disastrous.”
• learned the Wayne County Hospital Auxiliary has confirmed their commitment to develop a gift shop, with plans to locate it in a portion of the former conference room near the hospital’s main entrance.
• went into closed session for board education.
© Copyright 2005 Corydon Times
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