The monthly meeting of the Mitchell County Hospital Health Systems Board of Trustees took place last night and, among other discussion, the Board heard from the Mitchell County Regional Medical Foundation and was updated on several other topics of interest.
Stephanie Simmons of the Michell County Regional Medical Foundation started the meeting's reports by updating the Board on some of their projects. The main focus was on the Perdue House and that much progress has been made on improvements to that facility through the fall. She reported that the upstairs of the house is currently undergoing a renovation and decisions are being made on how to proceed based on bids coming in on work that needs to be completed. The Foundation still hopes the house will be ready to host families in the spring of 2014, and is excited about the work that has been done so far. Another development shared by the Foundation was that the Jackie Larson family made a donation on behalf of Don Larson toward a piece of equipment that will aid in the viability of organs donated in this area. This piece of equipment will be a great help in this area and has already been used once. A dedication on this new equipment is pending. It was also shared at the meeting last night that Solomon Valley Transportation's efforts in Osborne County of been successful thus far and calls for transportation to Beloit and back for medical needs and around Osborne for general transportation needs have been utilized and well received by the community. There are four part-time drivers who serve Osborne County currently and they are starting to see more requests for their services. Finally in Foundation news, A Wish For Our Community, a program started two years ago that spans the last two weeks of December and aims to raise funds for local entities, will be going on again this year. Projects this year are the Physical Therapy Department, the Mitchell County Blood Drive, the food pantry, Mitchell County Historical Society, Perdue House, and Solomon Valley Transportation. 500 notices will be sent out to citizens in the community asking for donations toward this effort that can be designated to go directly to a certain project among the six being highlighted or funds can be designated to go to the Foundation's general fund.
The 5th Annual Spirit of the Season event, benefitting Relay for Life and organized by the Hospital's team, was a success this year. Even though it snowed the day of the event, it raised $3,400, which is $200 more than last year.
Employee years of service anniversaries were also presented to the Board at last night's meeting. Honorees were Robyn Gericke with five years of service and Ann Heberly and Shirley Wichers each with 40 years of service.
It was recommended to the Board that they purchase a new backup device for the hospitals computer system as a replacement for the current device. This piece of equipment would be purchased locally and will be a great help to ensure digital information is backed up correctly. The Board approved the measure to purchase the device.
Finally, the Board discussed financial and budget reports and closed with executive session to discuss personnel matters.