The Phelps Health Board of Trustees Wednesday night asked for more financial information before committing to a plan that would expand hours and eventually space to accommodate an immediate care center at the Phelps Health clinic in Salem.
“I’d like to see more financial data,” board member Annie Bass said to Claire Chitwood, chief administrative officer, who made the proposal. “This is the beginning of a footprint. We have to make sure that this is what we want to do.”
Chitwood had said in her presentation that the four-phase plan would require start-up money of $515,000. She said that money is already set aside for capital expenditures.
“It hasn’t been used; it just needs to be reallocated,” she said.
Bass, Francine Merenghi, Dr. Joe Bond, Dr. Anthony Kaczmarek and John Denbo all seemed to agree that more information regarding expected costs and revenue needed to be presented before they would vote on the initial $515,000 expenditure.
And Chitwood agreed to present that information in writing as soon as possible. Whether the board would take that matter up for a decision at its next monthly meeting or in a special meeting was not clear.
Chitwood began her presentation noting that “we’ve been talking about this for some time” but the talk turned to actual planning when “Salem (Memorial District) Hospital started having all of their more intense concerns. SMDH has experienced financial problems that culminated with a group coming in to run the hospital under direction of the board.
“And so we really ramped this up and talked a little bit about it at last board meeting and promised to run a proposal for opening an ICC.”
That proposal was presented with a slide on the screen behind her at the meeting in the Shirley Day Conference Room at Delbert Day Cancer Institute.
On the screen was a slide showing a four-phase plan.
“There are multiple reasons for this. In our Rolla ICC, we’re seeing patients from Salem who have no provider,” she said. “Fifteen or 16 a day on average. Now that was during COVID. We’ve tapered down a little. We are still seeing four or five a day and those are just the ones that are making the drive. Some may be going elsewhere.”
No major moves are needed to initiate this new service.
“This proposal sets out a way to do this with our existing space,” she said. “In the first phase, there would be an after-hours or walk-in clinic to measure how successful this is and if it’s really something that’s needed and is providing a service to that community.’
That first phase would extend the clinic hours (which opens at 8 a.m.) Monday through Friday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Chitwood said “the beauty of this is we already have a provider,” a Salem native who wants to move back to Salem but there is not a full-time position there. With these extended hours, her plan seemed to be that the provider could work full-time hours, split between Rolla and Salem.
“So, that’s the initial proposal,” she said.
In phase two of the move to add the immediate care center, the Monday through Friday hours would continue from 5-8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday hours from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. would be added.
“Then phase three would be extending Saturday and Sunday to 10 hours to match our other ICC’s,” she said, noting the weekend hours would be 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Then in phase four, additional space would be needed and the hours would be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday to complete the Salem Immediate Care Center project.
Additional capital spending will be needed for that phase 4 completion, either by expanding the clinic building—there’s room on the current property—or by moving to another building in town.
Implementing the first three phases will give plenty of time to figure out what to do to complete the final phase, she said.
She said that employees of the Phelps Health Salem clinic have reported being contacted by Salem hospital personnel “offering them – and these are amazing front-desk PSRs (patient service representatives) -- $3,000 sign-on bonuses,” although there apparently was no guarantee to match their current rate of pay or guarantee their number of hours weekly.
In the subsequent discussion, it was noted that Four Rivers Community Health Center now has a presence in Salem, and other area hospitals are advertising their services, so Salem is becoming a competitive healthcare arena, and that is why the board members asked for additional financial data before committing to spending the start-up money for the Salem ICC.
