The Salem Memorial District Hospital Board of Directors had its regular meeting yesterday.
The summary of operations was presented by Monica Gargus, chief financial officer, and included 47 inpatient admissions, which was under the budgeted amount of 60. The outpatient registration numbers were down a little bit, as the number of home heath visits were down, but had been up the last two months, so the yearly average was still up. Emergency room visits were down a little, 802, from what was budgeted, 859, and by fiscal year 2017’s number of 840.
During the reading of the operating statement, Gargus stated the total patient revenue was below budget, and there was a loss of operations of $17,576. After taxes of $3,314, there was a total of $14,262 excess of revenues loss.
“We’ve had really good numbers in July, August, and September in the past couple of years, so it is down a little,” said hospital administrator Kasey Lucas.
In the comparison of expenses, the physician contracts were up about $10,000 from using a contract agency that is out of Joplin. All other expenses were about the same as the budgeted amount, or below, making the overall expense total below budget and also below on year-to-date. The long-term liabilities net change had decreased by $175,973. The current year is at $314,724, while the prior year was $490, 697. The cash flow had a decrease of $204,276, with a final total of $4,646,157.
Gargus reported that there was a system-wide problem with a client within Medicaid, which explained why the aging of accounts receivables for the month of September was higher than last month. The client told the hospital that they were solving the problem, and it would be fixed.
Debbie Hines, chief nursing officer, gave an update on the quality improvement projects that were happening. Surgery’s project was a reduction of expired stock and actions taken to change the inventory process. Human resources wanted to properly report incidents/accidents; there will be additional staff training on the process.
Long-term care had two new projects that have been introduced. The first included hand hygiene and glove donning (sterile/non-sterile) and had a monitoring form created. The second dealt with tracheotomy and gastrostomy care. A check-off list was created and provided to nursing staff, and a plan of correction has been explained to the Department of Health and Senior Services. The pharmacy’s project was an implementation of a drug library that would allow staff to look up what specific drugs go with certain symptoms.
“It makes it very easy for all the nurses to search for what they need, instead of having to go through the whole list to find it,” said Hines.
The last project was incidental disclosures with medical records. The primary care physicians are being removed from the patient’s profile, eliminating the potential of disclosure to the wrong physician. Instead, it will be entered on each visit to ensure it goes to the current primary care physician.
• The minutes from the regular meeting held Sept. 19 were approved by the board.
• Lucas stated the 2018 health screening dates will be Feb. 7 and 8, May 23 and 24, and Sept. 19 and 20.
• The Hospital Foundation met and discussed fundraisers, including the upcoming Dancing with the Salem Stars that will be held Dec. 9. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased from Ruth Ann Parker, but are selling out quickly. The next meeting will be held in the hospital library Nov. 8.
• Lucas presented the Hospital Auxiliary report from the Oct. 3 meeting and discussed its past and upcoming fundraisers. The Scrub Hub was held in the hospital parking lot Oct. 18. Wreath sales are ongoing now until Oct. 31. The next meeting will be held at noon at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory Nov. 7.
• Lucas read off the patient satisfaction survey results from the emergency department and SMDH Family Medicine. There were 156 surveys returned for the July through September of this year for the emergency department, and 89 returned for SMDH Family Medicine. Lucas reported that they were “very good numbers.”
• The annual bylaw review was discussed and approved by the board.
• Hospital annual audit report will be discussed at the next meeting. One of the things discussed was last year’s increased volume, which the board knew they were going to have to pay money back to Medicare. Lucas stated that there would be more detailed updates at the meeting.
The next meeting will be held Nov. 14 in the hospital library.
