Alva Review-Courier -

The Kiowa District Hospital Board of Directors met for their November meeting the last evening of the month. President Pat Myers called the meeting to order with members present including: Jeff Miller, Chantae Simpson and Jim Parker. Miranda Allen arrived shortly after the meeting began. KDH CEO Margaret Grismer also sat at the board table.

Other hospital personnel attending were: CFO Janell Goodno; Hospital DON Heidi Courson; Tara Girty and Lynn Johnson of the business office; PA Melissa Stroh, and RN Robyn Whitaker; five members of Cohesive Healthcare (the management/consulting company who the hospital contracted with in March); and Friends of the Hospital and Manor Foundation President Judy Schrock.

Grismer explained the hospital's lab was in dire need of replacing a piece of equipment, a centrifuge incubator combo.“Ours is old and we can't get parts,” Grismer said. “It HAS to be approved.” Goodno said this piece of equipment has been on the capital improvement list since she started employment with KDH in 2011.

The board approved the purchase at a cost of $4,999 with free shipping. They opted against the costly warranty plans of $1,500 to $2,500. KDH saved $500 by purchasing the equipment before the end of the year.

When asked after the meeting, lab tech Abby Humphrey said this combo is a vital piece of equipment for the blood bank department and is used for blood transfusions.

Regarding renewal of licensure for the KDH Risk Management Plan, Grismer said they were in a time crunch and had to bring it up to the new regulations. So they did it by email with President Myers' signature.

Following executive session at the end of the meeting, the board approved two months of RM.

Also after executive session, the board approved entering a contract with Cerner Direct for electronic healthcare record software. This is upon legal review. KDH has considered which provider to use for for these records for well over a year.

Grismer said when the City of Kiowa tested the new and old generators together to see if they would run the entire city at once, the test did not include the hospital. While Grismer said the hospital has its own generator, she and City Administrator Lou Leone are planning to test just the hospital with the city generators.

The KDH 2018 Handbook is being compiled and Grismer said they are getting employee input. Some of the subjects being discussed include dress code changes, lunch breaks, sick leave, part-time employees can get hospital health insurance but must pay for it themselves, on-call holiday pay, disciplinary, acceptable use of social media and more.

Cohesive and More Reports

Jamel Bandeh, Cohesive Healthcare project manager, gave a report. He said the hospital would have three new admissions the next day. Bandeh said they hired a full-time marketer from Wichita. Marketing and patient referral efforts continue.

Some of those patients that Cohesive referred to KDH are currently “vent patients” (on a ventillator) and are considered swingbed patients. Bandeh complimented DON Courson for her efforts. Checking with Courson Tuesday afternoon, she said their patient census was six. She said the nursing staff is handling the load well and she is excited to have the new patients.

Courson and Bandeh referred to the new nurse John who joined KDH through Cohesive. He is from Kenya and said he likes working here and the staff reciprocates his feelings.

The KDH Senior Strong program is up and running, Bandeh said. They are assessing patients in this area. With many new regulations, the manor still awaits a state survey, he said. The manor needs a heater booster, but no action was taken.

Stroh said there is a true need for financial assistance for some of the folks who enjoy Kiowa Mobile Meals. Contact KDH if you'd like to help. The clinic also has a Christmas tree with wish lists of those who could use some gifts. Medical staff appointments were approved for Jennifer Westerman, APRN; Garry Morsch, MD; and Faisal Sami, MD (Argus).

Manor and Hospital Financials and Statistics

Presenting statistics for the hospital, Goodno said they had 76 total days of acute and swingbed care with 16 total admissions. These numbers helped improve total gross patient revenue by $57,679 for October. That was the amount over the budgeted patient revenue. Goodno said the increase in revenue is due to higher inpatient and skilled-day volume which included local and Cohesive referrals.

Outpatient visits totaled 703 in October, which is the highest month of 2017. Clinic visits totaled 319.

The manor resident census was 15 at the end of October and was 16 at the end of November. The hospital financials showed $637,617 of total operating revenue. Total operating expenses were $561,801. So net from operations was a positive $75,816. Add in $86,364 mainly tax money and the hospital was in the black $162,180. This curbs the hospital's YTD loss to $620,410.

Goodno gave manor financial totals for October that showed total operating revenue of $89,755. Total operating revenue was $130,865. This made a loss of $41,110. With the addition of $5,000 tax money; $4,000 donations; $67,268 insurance claims income from the roof; all totaling $76,658, the manor's bottom line was $35,549 in the black. So YTD, the manor's loss is $302,192.

Goodno said that KDH received their 2017 interim cost settlement from Medicare that totaled $552,000. This improved the KDH cash on hand to $814,041. YTD at the end of October the hospital and manor were in the red $922,601. The next board meeting is Thursday, Dec. 21.