FOR DIRECTOR DISTRICT #6 TO SERVE THE REMAINING ONE (1) YEAR OF A SIX (6) YEAR TERM
LEIGH ANN PRICE
Briefly, I was born and reared in the great State of Missouri. My family and educators helped build a strong foundation by laying down the fundamental principles while challenging me and creating an environment filled with intellectual curiosity. I have dedicated my life to the practice of medicine, more specifically the discipline of surgery and now to serving this community. After 30 plus years in active healthcare, I have returned to my hometown and my hope is to extend the knowledge gained to assist this hospital. As a sixth generation Dent Countian appointed to the hospital board in August 2023, I realize the impact of maintaining a good hospital in this area is essential for the survival of this community and feel it is important to have a physician serving on the hospital board to aid in the rapidly changing world of medicine.
Salem Memorial Hospital is in a budgetary crisis. What can the board do in the short term to avoid closure?
We need to achieve financial stability in the short term by expanding those job positions on the frontend (registration, coding and billing) with higher wages and attainable goals. Training should include the right billing forms, accurate identifying information including changes to insurance, notifying providers about financial red flags, need for preauthorization before obtaining radiographs, labs, etc… and properly filing insurance claims. The challenge presently, the insurance companies are looking for reasons to delay or deny paying the bills. Meticulous bookkeeping and data entry will make it more difficult for those claims to be detained.
Roughly breaking this down, if the hospital is not paid or reimbursed for services, this makes it difficult for the hospital to make payroll and pay their bills to contractors/suppliers (pharmaceuticals, food industry, etc.). Adjusting our financial planning is necessary and paying close attention to the priorities of the hospital and patient care while dealing with the lack of funds as we slowly start to have an upward turn in revenue-this will take time to achieve this goal consistently.
To achieve financial stability in the long-term: 1. understanding the urgency of solving some of the health insurance problems including the denies and delays with the insurance payer’s payments along with decreasing the hospital deductions; 2. preserving a balance between revenue and expenses; 3. prioritizing high levels of care to the patients (ie low hospital readmission rates by using the rural health clinic for continued preventative medicine) whilst reducing or removing overall unnecessary costs will all help with long-term cost reduction.
One of the options to keep the hospital open is to sell or merge with a larger hospital group. Is this an option to take, and explain why it is or isn’t.
The hospital board plays an important role in the governance by providing both a visionary and fiduciary responsibility to the hospital and the community. This is to ensure the hospital’s mission, metrics and vision become a reality by stating clear goals, outlining a strategic plan for achieving the goals and empowering each employee to take action on the plan at the various levels. In this rapidly changing healthcare system, the guidance provided is based on what we will look like now and over the next ten years and so forth. To attain and ensure financial stability, it may be necessary to have a collaborative partnership to aid in the cost management short-term, but I truly believe this hospital could be a “stand alone” hospital with the ability to grow, add or diversify the services offered while maintaining and optimizing operations. The reality, it is critical we maintain this hospital for the community and surrounding communities at all costs while being cost effective and assuring patient safety.
As a board member, how do you, or would you, provide oversight to see that issues are caught early and dealt with before they become bigger problems?
Transparency. Accountability. Altruism. The board is the governing body and we are only aware of the items presented at the meetings so it is difficult to oversee what we are not aware of unless it is brought to our attention. The questions asked by the board to management need to be answered, then repeated throughout the fiscal year and to ensure the financial sustainability in our hospital, we need to optimize operations by the willingness to ask for help, especially if one does not know the answer nor understand the question or task at hand, thus serving the greater good of the hospital.
We must continue to look for 1. potential overhead reductions, 2. payer (insurance companies) and vendor (pharmaceutical, dietary, hospital supplies, etc…) negotiations, 3. renegotiation and reevaluation of physician/provider contracts, 4. minimizing write-offs, denials, and bad debt, 5. achieve preauthorization. Once we have gone through this data, we need to go through it again and again to revisit changes or new possibilities.
As one of our team leaders so eloquently stated in a leadership meeting, “if we continue to focus on quality, quantity will come…”- this statement is so very accurate.
Despite the issues facing SMH, what are some of the positives that can be built on to help improve its financial stability?
Taking the opportunity to walk around and through the hospital, familiarizing myself with the staff, employees, their work environment, the jobs they complete and their proud work ethics, I quickly learned they are an incredibly powerful team with many strong, supportive ideas to alter the financial struggles in front of us presently. Several have looked at ways to reduce the needs of their departments safely while maintaining good patient care…we, as the board and executive leadership, just need to stop and listen. At the end of the day, the stakeholders in our community working at the Salem Memorial Hospital and on its campus are the secret to our success in keeping this hospital functional and finding new and better ways to improve based the interests of our community.
SUSAN JORDAN
I am a retired teacher from the Salem R80 School District. I have lived here since 1980.
Salem Memorial Hospital is in a budgetary crisis. What can the board do in the short term to avoid closure?
As a member of the board, I would seek every avenue to avoid closure. Spending must be controlled. Transparency should be encouraged on costs, efficiency, and quality of care.
One of the options to keep the hospital open is to sell or merge with a larger hospital group. Is this an option to take, and explain why it is or isn’t.
Selling or merging with a larger hospital group should be a last resort. Positives for a sale or merger include: financial stability, more capital, and more specialized services. Negatives would include: increased prices, less access to care, and elimination of services.
As a board member, how do you, or would you, provide oversight to see that issues are caught early and dealt with before they become bigger problems?
As a board member, I would provide oversight to prevent and deal with issues with clear goals and expectations of the CEO.
Despite the issues facing SMH, what are some of the positives that can be built on to help improve its financial stability?
Positives of SMH are: good patient care, patient centered care, and high quality professionals.
FOR DIRECTOR DISTRICT #5 - SIX YEAR TERM
RAY BRUNO
I am a resident of Dent County. I have lived most of my adult life in Dent County and have worked in healthcare in Dent and surrounding counties since 1983. I started as an EMT in 1983 after taking an EMT class at SMDH. The next year I became a paramedic from SMDH’s one and only paramedic class. I received my bachelor of science in nursing from Maryville in 1993 and my MSN and FNP from UMSL in 1977. I have worked as an EMT – EMT-P, hospice nurse, ER nurse, long term care nurse, as a youth care worker and psychiatric nurse, as well as a nurse practitioner in the clinics and ER. I have been on the hospital board since 2006.
I have been in many activities supporting the local community over the years including Lenox Rural Fire Department, Dent Phelps School Board and charitable events, as well as CASA and MRC.
My wife Terry Bruno is also a family nurse practitioner, and my children are also in healthcare as well as one of my grandchildren and one of my brothers, Dave Bruno. I also raise cattle and hay on my farm.
I enjoy hunting, fishing, travel, camping, gardening, and my dogs.
I am a member of the Lutheran Church.
I have also been on medical missions in Nicaragua and Honduras as well as donated time to free medical clinics at Salem and good Samaritan clinic at Mt. View in the past.
Salem Memorial Hospital is in a budgetary crisis. What can the board do in the short term to avoid closure?
SMDH has already taken steps to decrease our losses by April one million dollars. These cost savings have been a result of closing two of our departments plus eliminating multiple non patient care positions, combining other positions, and administrative positions.
It is distressing to lose those departments but those services are also being provided by other providers in our area and were not eliminated without discussion and research.
SMDH has also received close to 600,000 in extra state funds and grants.
This in itself does not pull SMDH out of negative number but goes a long way to see daylight from the bottom of a pit.
The best way to put SMDH in a better financial position is to provide more Pt. care visits and continue to have those visits have quality health care as the top priority.
One of the challenges SMDH is facing is an increase in the number of companies providing health care in the Salem area. This is more challenging to make ends meet. This is especially true when according to our auditors and other health care experts some of the few ways to increase revenue is to increase the number of patients seen and have imaging and lab and SMDH.
The goal of SMDH and myself has always been to provide quality care and appropriate care to every patient seen. There will not always be a good outcome or a healing of every illness or injury (that is the nature of healthcare) but our job is to work towards that goal.
I believe that everyone at SMDH is doing that to the best of the abilities. As long as the SMDH families continue to do that we can continue to maintain our financial viability.
One of the options to keep the hospital open is to sell or merge with a larger hospital group. Is this an option to take, and explain why it is or isn’t.
I believe partnering with a larger hospital group has many advantages and a few pitfalls.
I have been with several hospitals over the years that have partnered and some have been good partnerships and some have led to the closure of the hospital.
Southwest Family Healthcare Clinic, Moutain Grove, became Mercy Moutain Grove Clinic and that was great.
Sullivan Community Hospital combined with Mo. Baptist Hosp. which was great for the community and services increased and quality of care increased. It was good for probably greater than 90% of the employees also.
Pulaski County Hospital chose to not partner or blend with any other providers and ended up closing. That hospital is now Piney Ridge Psychiatric Adolescent Care.
Reynolds County Hospital chose partnerships that ended in their closure. So it does not always end well.
SMDH does have things to offer in partnership that could benefit both parties as long as we don’t wait too long to make a partnership.
According to several reliable sources over 50% remaining rural hospitals are in the negative balances. Many rural hospitals over the last 6 years have closed. Those that closed had waited too long to partner.
A pitfall of joining with a partner is ensuring that entity is not wanting to just sell off your good/new equipment and then parcel out what they can of your property or set you up as just a place for specialties such as ortho, cancer, or mental health. It would still be good for patients with that specific problem but not for overall care.
Since I have seen this happen several times, I think I have a unique perspective and background to help with these decisions.
As a board member, how do you, or would you, provide oversight to see that issues are caught early and dealt with before they become bigger problems?
I have noted problems and brought them o the boards attention before. It is important to remember that decisions are made by a board majority. Each board member is to be able to voice their opinions and bring information to the board.
The decisions are implemented by the CEO, then feedback is brought to the board by the CEO. The decisions/goals are ongoing. Also, the board and med staff works with the CEO to ensure quality patient care.
Things work best when all parts, the board, CEO and med staff, and all of the staff are working together.
I think the chain of command is important. With the chain ending with the board. If anyone does not get a problem resolved, they can bring it to the board.
That does not mean the board will always side with the person/groups with the complaint but will follower our policies.
We should be able to generally resolved things within a month or table an issue while we gain information and make informed decisions.
Despite the issues facing SMH, what are some of the positives that can be built on to help improve its financial stability?
We have an active and motivated staff of providers for the clinic and in patients at the hospital.
Our staff has been and continues to be our strongest asset. All departments are dedicated to providing excellent patient care and the CEO has met with the departments and they are all cost concerns but no one is to cut costs at the price of reducing quality of care.
We are critical care access hospital so we get a little better reimbursement than some other hospitals.
We have long term care unit that is an asset, as well as an excellent MRT and CT machine.
SMDH’s lab has made great strides and should be back to pre-COVID status in a year or so.
We have an active EMS system that is definitely an asset and provide back up for fire and law enforcement and football games and other sporting events and of course the Road Rally.
We still need to explore other areas to increase our revenue.
All in all we have kept the hospital open when many have closed and I don’t wish to sound boastful but I believe we can still stay open and improve.
N. DWAYNE LAND
No response received.
FRANK A. BARNITZ
My family and I live at Lake Spring and have all my life. I have been active in our community for many years. Serving on Dent-Phelps R-3 school board, being a 4-H club leader, served on University of Missouri Extension Council, and Dent-Phelps County Cattlemens Association, as well as serving our area as a State Representative, and State Senator. I own and operate different businesses in Dent County including our family farm, a custom feed mixing business, a backgrounding lot, and a hunting lease business.
Salem Memorial Hospital is in a budgetary crisis. What can the board do in the short term to avoid closure?
I still think that there are possible ways to strengthen the financial situation that we are currently dealing with. My experience with being a public official is going to be a strength that I believe I can assist with. Knowing some of the organizations that offer services that may be able to assist in writing grants, directing us to stronger management services, opening up new levels of communication with vendors. I also believe that more constructive communication will allow the board to make tough but necessary adjustments to current operations.
One of the options to keep the hospital open is to sell or merge with a larger hospital group. Is this an option to take, and explain why it is or isn’t.
I don’t believe that the hospital is at that level of crisis. While I believe all options must be looked at, this is NOT the first option I see that should be taken. I have seen other hospitals that have tried to merge and it doesn’t always end up with services being better for the community. I would rather pursue other options first.
As a board member, how do you, or would you, provide oversight to see that issues are caught early and dealt with before they become bigger problems?
Open communication is critical. Asking and receiving necessary reports, self-auditing and reporting critical areas of operations, and financial reports on a biweekly period. Encouraging the Board to direct management to act on situations immediately, not waiting to see what will happen.
Despite the issues facing SMH, what are some of the positives that can be built on to help improve its financial stability?
Our people. Community, employees, contractors, vendors. All these people want our hospital to succeed, we will need to keep an open line of communication, to encourage more clear direction. Looking at all options and services that may strengthen the viability of our hospital. Sometimes cutting services is not the answer, but adding services can bring financial strength to it.
COLLEEN LAKE
First and foremost I am a Christian. I am married to Steve Lake. Between us we have five children and one grandson. I have lived in Dent County most of my life. I attended Dent-Phelps R-3 K-8TH grade. I graduated from Rolla High School in 1991 and then went into the Radiology program which is now through East Central College in Rolla. I have been working in healthcare since graduating from that program. I have been employed with Texas County Memorial Hospital as their lead MRI technologist for the last 18 years. I have seen a great many changes in healthcare over the last thirty years. I believe this is an area I can help to make SMH a place patients and employees can be proud of.
Salem Memorial Hospital is in a budgetary crisis. What can the board do in the short term to avoid closure?
I think that there needs to be more advertising brought back to bring patients back, which would bring in more revenue. There is more than likely free advertising that could be used, one example would be Facebook. There should be employee spotlights regularly. I’m sure there are a lot of valuable employees at SMH. Administration should be charged with holding managers accountable for finding ways to decrease costs in their respective departments, maybe in areas such as payroll and supplies. The hospital could investigate all grants or funding that would be available to rural hospitals.
One of the options to keep the hospital open is to sell or merge with a larger hospital group. Is this an option to take, and explain why it is or isn’t.
I feel that selling or merging with a larger hospital group would be a poor decision for Dent County residents. SMH is one of the biggest employers in Dent County, if SMH merges with another facility there is a remote chance that jobs would be lost. Although small hospitals like SMH face many different problems than do the larger facilities, I feel the larger facilities have lost sight of patient care and truly understanding what patients need. The larger facilities tend to treat patients as just another number. Smaller facilities such as SMH tend to have more of a “we care” atmosphere and treat people with dignity and respect. I would like to see SMH continue to be able to do this. I’d like to see SMH continue to provide job opportunities for the youth and future healthcare workers of Dent County.
As a board member, how do you, or would you, provide oversight to see that issues are caught early and dealt with before they become bigger problems?
From what I know, it appears that SMH is lacking some leadership. It is not the job of the board to run the hospital. But the board can do their best to make sure that the CEO is a strong leader who can ensure the rest of administration works with the CEO to address issues early. The board should work with the CEO to the extent that it can and hold all leadership accountable as well as holding the CEO accountable. Successful businesses start at the top. There needs to be a standard set for valuable employees to follow.
Despite the issues facing SMH, what are some of the positives that can be built on to help improve its financial stability?
It appears as if SMH has some accounting issues that they are working on, and that work needs to continue. They should investigate if there are any programs that would help with getting the accounting straightened out. SMH has a state-of-the-art imaging department and because of that SMH should ensure that their providers are utilizing SMH for imaging instead of sending patients to other facilities. This would ensure that the department continues to run and bring in revenue. I believe SMH has a strong Board of Directors that care about SMH, and hopefully existing and/or new members can work together to improve the atmosphere. This would help to bring back business and bring back valuable jobs to relieve those who are now working too many jobs. I have faith that with guidance, SMH can once again be a great place for the residents of Dent County.
FOR DIRECTOR DISTRICT #4 - TO SERVE THE REMAINING FIVE (5) YEARS OF A SIX (6) YEAR TERM
ZACHARY MOSER
I live with my wife, Mary, and two children, John (6) and Amelia (3) in Jadwin on our farm on which we raise cattle and grow grapes. I graduated with my Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree from the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy (Formerly St. Louis College of Pharmacy) in 2014 before moving back to Salem to practice. I worked about one year as a pharmacist at Moser Pharmacy, and about five years as the Director of Pharmacy at Salem Memorial Hospital. Today, I practice pharmacy on an as-needed basis with Walmart in addition to my role at the Dent County Health Center.
During my time at SMH, I learned about the inner workings of the organization; the good and the bad. As Director, I worked in a clinical and management capacity and brought many changes to the department. My experience gained here allowed me to take and pass the exam to become a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist (BCPS) in 2020, indicating a mastery of the use of medications to treat diseases. I also obtained my master’s degree in business administration (MBA) in 2021.
After my time at SMH, I spent about a year at Lake Regional Medical Center as the Clinical Coordinator of Pharmacy, which was a management and clinical role. While there, I participated in the care of a few hundred COVID-19 patients who were in the ICU and Medical floors. Later, I was a part of Lake Regionals’ team responsible for the vaccine roll-out in December of 2020 and early 2021.
Since July of 2021, I have served as the Administrator of the Dent County Health Center and the County Health Officer. We navigated through difficult times during the middle and late stages of the pandemic, but came out overall in a stronger position. My time with the Health Center has further broadened my knowledge of the business workings of healthcare organizations.
My extensive experience on both the frontline and management side of the medical field gives me a strong background to understand and make good decisions as a Board Member at Salem Memorial Hospital.
Salem Memorial Hospital is in a budgetary crisis. What can the board do in the short term to avoid closure?
SMH’s budgetary problems are primarily insufficient collections from patients and insurance companies, but not entirely. Several third party assessments (consultants) have evaluated our operations and have all identified issues in revenue cycle, which is the process of sending out bills for services and collecting those payments. It sounds simple, but for a medical organization, it’s extremely difficult. As a critical access hospital, it’s even more complicated.
Salaries are the hospital’s number one expense, which is to be expected as a service-based organization. Moves have already been made to streamline operations and consolidate positions, but sometimes this works against you. Because of the way critical access hospitals are reimbursed, these cuts made in prior years actually resulted in SMH needing to pay back Medicare, with interest.
SMH will need to work quickly to continue to identify any sources of significant losses and cut those out, while continuing to increase collection rates. There really is no substitute for balancing operational expenses and revenue. Nothing can be off the table, given the circumstances.
I have spent significant time researching options to raise funds for the longer term. SMH is already supported by a $0.25 property tax, which generates about $650,000 annually. Missouri law allows the voters to approve up to $1.00 for hospitals. Raising this tax alone would provide enough additional revenue to put the hospital back on solid ground. Ideally, however, tax revenue should support capital expenditures and operations should balance itself.
Missouri Law also allows for two other types of taxing districts: ambulance and nursing home. SMH currently runs both nursing home services and ambulance services, and loses money on both. If separate taxing districts were created, SMH could contract with the new districts to provide these services on their behalf and greatly improve operations. Current Missouri law allows a $0.35 tax for nursing home districts and $0.10 for Ambulance districts. Ambulance districts alternatively have the option of a 0.5% sales tax. Assuming the same district boundaries as the hospital, a $0.35 and $0.10 property tax would generate about $1,100,000 to support the nursing home and ambulance activities.
One of the options to keep the hospital open is to sell or merge with a larger hospital group. Is this an option to take, and explain why it is or isn’t
The most important thing is to keep a hospital open and functioning in our community. All of the services, including the ones that have already been cut, are vital. Without them, people will be travelling a minimum of 25-30 miles. Without our hospital, there will be no labs, no physical therapy, no emergency department, no CT, ultrasound, or MRI, and no ambulance. This is simply not an option. Closure will result in increased medical expenses for community members, decreased access to care, and some will die because of longer EMS response times. We cannot let this happen.
Some of the issues plaguing the hospital are inherent to healthcare today. As a stand-alone facility, assuming no tax increases are proposed, SMH will never generate enough excess revenue to be able to make the investments that are needed to restore and modernize its facility. As a provider in a rural area, SMH also suffers from difficulty in recruiting qualified candidates for all roles, from billing clerks up to physicians. A merger, sale, or some other partnership or affiliation would help with one or more of these problems.
I will not support a merger or sale that takes away all local control, or does not require certain services to be offered in perpetuity. I will not allow a deal to be made that would allow a buyer to purchase SMH simply for the patient base with the future intention of closing the hospital.
I would prefer some type of arrangement that shares certain services, which could help SMH gain proficiency and efficiency in areas such as revenue cycle, accounting, and purchasing. Affiliation agreements could help us support a modern electronic health record system as well. Such arrangements would not necessarily require a complete sale or merger of the hospital.
However, without giving up most of the control, an outside investor is unlikely to be willing to put $10-$20 million in facility investment that is needed for long-term success. Lower level partnerships could help make the core business profitable, but they will not provide the cash infusion needed in the long term.
As a board member, how do you, or would you, provide oversight to see that issues are caught early and dealt with before they become bigger problems?
As a board member, my job is to provide oversight and a strategic vision for the hospital, not to manage the day-to-day operations. I do this by attending all meetings, thoroughly reviewing all provided documents, and checking outside sources.
During meetings, I listen intently, and ask pointed and relevant questions. I don’t shy away from difficult conversations or from addressing things that are uncomfortable or unpleasant to discuss. This is not to mean I don’t try to address them tactfully, I do. Nevertheless, I am human and often fail at this. But, I am sincere in my goal and desire to evaluate every decision presented to the Board with the purpose of ensuring a hospital continues to operate in Salem and provides exceptional healthcare to the residents of our district.
Despite the issues facing SMH, what are some of the positives that can be built on to help improve its financial stability?
Outside consultants reflect on Salem Hospital as “a real hospital” with significant patient volume and a wide range of services. There is potential in our volume to be at least neutral from operations if certain areas are corrected.
In addition, we do have a core staff who are devoted to the hospital and want to see it succeed. We also have a strong Foundation that has raised a lot of money for the hospital. The participation at the events and the generosity of our community demonstrates the widespread support for SMH, and that is not something to be found in every community.
Possibly the most encouraging thing is simply SMH’s resiliency. So many other small hospitals have already closed a long time ago, but SMH has managed to continue on despite many obstacles. I think this says a lot about the hospital, its staff, leadership, and the community.
C. DAVID KERR
I was born and raised in Dent County. My dad owned a trucking company and charcoal kilns. I worked in the family business until his death. I then attended UMR and earned a degree in Life Sciences. I was accepted at the University of MO-Kansas City in the Pharmacy program. After graduation I moved my family to Springfield, Mo. where I worked 30 years in the Pharmacy business. I have 5 children and 4 grandchildren. My work and business experience includes the Dept of Veteran Affairs, the US Dept of Justice, St John’s Hospital, Cox Health Systems and I owned and operated 3 pharmacies before returning home to Salem. When I returned to Salem, I accepted the position of Director of Pharmacy at SMH where I still work part time today. I have a wealth of experience in Healthcare and Business that I could use to help solve the current problems at SMH.
Salem Memorial Hospital is in a budgetary crisis. What can the board do in the short term to avoid closure?
Managing a budgetary crisis in the short term requires cutting costs and collecting revenue. I think the hospital staff has done a great job in cutting daily costs. But now we need to focus on costs that the hospital incurs that are not reimbursed. Primarily this would be procedures that we have been doing and not getting paid. These costs need to be investigated and if we are not going to be paid for them, we need to stop doing them or limit them to things that are absolutely necessary. There are several very expensive procedures the hospital does that are either under reimbursed or not covered at all and must be written off. The business of the hospital seems to operate off Billed Revenue figures, which is a much larger number than the actual collected revenue amount. I’m sure this is done for accounting purposes, but we need to focus on what gets paid for and eliminate or limit what does not make money.
One of the options to keep the hospital open is to sell or merge with a larger hospital group. Is this an option to take, and explain why it is or isn’t.
Do we stay Independent or Merge with a large health system? If we can't get our debt under control, I think the only option will be to merge. The negatives with merging: We will lose control of the direction SMH will go in the future. Jobs will be lost due to duplication of roles with the new Health System. Primarily Administrative positions. The positives with merging: The debt will be under control. Patients will have access to more services. I hope we can remain Independent, but all options will need to be explored and evaluated to decide what is best for the hospital and the community.
As a board member, how do you, or would you, provide oversight to see that issues are caught early and dealt with before they become bigger problems?
The Hospital management needs to become more Proactive and over time will become less Reactive. SMH has been in crisis mode for some time now and has been just reacting to every problem that has arisen. More short-term and long-term planning will decrease the need to react to many problems that can be avoided. To stay more attuned with what is going on in the hospital and clinic regularly scheduled Town Hall meetings would keep the Board and Administration more informed. I also think there should be a liaison position within the facility that can report impending problems to management or directly to the Board if necessary.
Despite the issues facing SMH, what are some of the positives that can be built on to help improve its financial stability?
SMH has an excellent staff. They are the reason the place is still open. They have cut costs and gone above and beyond to get the job done. We can build on that. I think we have opportunities in the Outpatient Surgical department to increase revenue. We need to look at reopening Home Health. The Commercial Insurance Contracts need to be thoroughly reviewed to make sure they are up to date. Revenue Cycle has a new Director that is working to clean up old accounts and streamline the billing and reimbursement processes. We have excellent Emergency Department, Hospital and Clinic Providers. We also have a great facility. It’s old but is still in great shape. I think the only thing missing is a clear direction. The Board needs to be able to work together to provide this direction for SMH.
