Hospital Administrator David Dick shared administrative information reports with the Board of Trustees at their monthly meeting last night. CFO Eldon Koepke followed these reports with financial and budget reports as well as statistical reports.
Administrator Dick gave the Quality Improvement Balanced Scoreboard Report for the FY 2013 which includes the second quarter from July 12 to September 12. FY 2013 begins April 1, 2012 and ends March 31, 2013. He discussed the percentage of compliance on each section of the report and explained the indicators and what they mean to the overall performance during this period. The hospital must participate in this program in order to receive increased payments from Blue Cross-Blue Shield.
Mr. Dick gave the overall deficiencies received in the State Survey Report and how these are being corrected. In the Flex Monitoring Executive report the Administrator explained the State-level Executive Summary report for Kansas showed how this level compared to the rest of the nation in the CAH Financial Indicator Report. This summary is to enable appropriate targeting of state Flex investments and the current risk of financial distress in Kansas compared to all benchmark CAH's in the nation.
Reporting on the Solomon Valley Transportation 2013 Grant, Administrator Dick said they are starting the process of writing the next grant and this work has to be turned in to the State by the end of November. The Mitchell County Regional Medical Foundation has put a lot of work in on this project and they are very excited about it because they state has a lot more grant money available this year.
One of the buses they are using now has one hundred thousand miles on it. They are raising funds to provide the 20 percent match needed to secure a grant for purchasing a new vehicle. They have had one contribution to this fund so far. All they have to have now are pledges and then in 18 months when the bus arrives they have to have the funds in place. The amount of local funds needed is $10,000, Mr. Dick said.
Mr. Dick reported they are making progress on replacing the ultrasound machine and hope to do this on the 29th of this month. This was approved by the board at the last meeting at a cost of $112,000.00. It was previously approved for purchase on the capital budget. They will have to have staff training on the use of the new machine.
Administrator Dick and CFO Eldon Koepke, gave an update on the progress on the Meditech Implementation. They sent out some statements this past Friday and more today. They feel these statements are more patient friendly and more informative than the old statements. They include insurance payment information, a summery of charges made and how much the insurance actually paid and the balance remaining. Each statement is being reviewed before it is sent out.
It was noted at last months' meeting that the hospital would probably be unable to attest to the meaningful use this year due to script writing for the reports. At last evening's meeting, Dick and Koepke explained the need to have improved data added to this report before it is finished and ready to submit.
The hospital is continuing to review the KanCare contracts from three participating companies. Koepke is close to getting this done has yet to sign a contract. He is still negotiating with the company of this. David and Eldon explained how this system works and that they hope to get this done in the near future.
The Community Health Assessment paper survey is still progressing, Administrator Dick said. The next step will be to set up one on one interviews and schedule some town meetings with community members. They are still reviewing the data and hope to have the plan in place sometime in 2013.
Under new business, years of service recognition was given to Linda Kastrup for five years in the Acute Care Unit and Matt Otte for five years in Discharge Planning.
Administrator Dick reported on progress on recruitment and temporary contracts for professional staff. He is reviewing three contracts on physical therapy contacts. Some of these are retained contracts and some are contingency help. He has been looking at several different companies to obtain the best contracts. Right now he is talking to one company called X-line that really seems understanding of the needs of rural areas. No decision has been made on this situation as yet.
CFO Koepke discussed financial and statistical reports for the month of September. Operating margin as a percentage of net patient service revenue was 2.30 for this September and .90 percent for this year to date. Operating margin was 1.26 of the gross revenue for September. The Acute annual average length of stay was 4.05 days through the end of September this year and 4.54 for the month of September only.
The Board went into executive session for 30 minutes to discuss Medical Staff Credentials and Risk Management after which the meeting was adjourned.