June 23, 2008

The Board of Trustees of Mitchell County Hospital Health Systems met yesterday evening The first item for discussion on their agenda was Facility Enhancement and an update on the recent activities of the Facility Master Plan Task Force activities.

Health Facilities, Inc. of Wichita was chosen last month and a contract was signed at a cost of $6,500 which will roll into architect fees once the project gets underway.

Representatives of the company have been at the hospital holding meetings with Hospital Administrator David Dick and members of the Task Force for the last two weeks. They will return on July 3.

Vice Chairman, John Cashatt, asked if the tornado protection issue had been addressed. Dick said it has and they are looking for solutions to the problem. He said it takes 20 minutes to evacuate everyone to the basement of the hospital. Each section of the hospital is to take a different elevator to the basement. They are also looking at other plausible solutions.

Administrator Dick said they would like to have two ground floor safe rooms for people to go into during the storms. A feasibility study shows that this project is a priority of the community. The task force’s goal is to come up with a rough estimate of the cost of this project. They are looking at research on how to reach their goal.

Dick talked to the board about starting a Capital Campaign. This is a plan they used at a former hospital where he worked and he feels it is a very plausible campaign plan. He explained the meaning of Systematic Gift donations and showed a chart listing monthly gift donations that showed how they grew into significant amounts over time. While many people can’t give a large amount at one time, Dick said, they could usually afford a smaller amount each month.

Since this plan has not been used in Beloit before, Dick said a database would have to be created from scratch. You would have to add the cost to create a foundation and then start prioritizing the funds. This would be done with two goals in mind. Number one would be to modernize parts of the facility that they couldn’t afford when the other parts of the hospital were updated. Second, to look at setting up a foundation to develop and create capitol for hospital needs in the future.

Administrator Dick told the board they need to take fund raising more serious. This plan will soon start showing an increase in dollars to use as capitol. “We need to stay innovative and attentive to ways to increase our capitol so we can attract good physicians and purchase good equipment for the betterment of the hospital. I recommend that we move forward on this. It is past time for the hospital to create more systematic ways of fund raising. A motion was made to allow David to enter into a contract to help set up the Capital Campaign as explained to the board.

In other business, the KAE Application Progress report and update was given. Administrator Dick updated the board on the new patient satisfaction surveys. Although the number of surveys returned is still not as good as we would like, Dick said, most of what are returned have favorable comments about the hospital and staff. Information on the Long Term Care Unit survey was discussed. There were no deficiencies on the physical environment of the LTC unit. The resolutions presented to the surveyors were accepted and they chose not to come back for a resurvey.

The facility plans to make changes in the outpatient and emergency room patient records to better discern between the two admissions in order to comply with federal regulations. Nurses will screen patients to determine how the patient should be listed, emergency, urgent and not urgent and explain the reason for this in some sort of documentation.

Under the Capital Equipment Update, Administrator Dick explained the Long Term Care Chiller has been replaced with a new system. The Esophageal Manomety has been updated with a new machine that has the diagnostic capabilities.

A portable battery operated ventilator has been ordered to use when transporting patients to Salina or Wichita and will be here soon.

Years of service awards were given to the following employees: Becky Koster – 5 years; Cherie Simmons – 5 years; Adam Thompson – 5 years, Cindy Taylor – 30 years and Kris Hansen – 35 years.

Administrator Dick signed a recruitment Agreement with Dr. Jason Cheney and presented it for the board to approve and sign. Dr. Chris Kimple, MD moved the agreement be accepted. It will go into effect the first part of August.

Eldon Koepke, Chief Financial Officer, presented a financial report for the hospital for April and May 2008 comparing it to a year ago. The income statement presented showed the total patient service revenue as of May 31, 2008 at $3,057,958 down slightly when compared to May of last year at $3, 200, 386. The total operating revenue for the year to date was $3,814,015.

Operating expenses for the month of May 2008 were $1,835,684 up from $1,747,011 in May of last year. Koepke gave figures for each department in the facility and totals for each procedure administered.

The total facility assets and liabilities for the current year are listed at $22,189,790.66 for a net change of $858,203.22 from the year before.

The meeting adjourned and the board went into a short executive meeting.