Alva Review-Courier -

Share Medical Center was not significantly impacted by the flu and cold season the first half of January 2018, However, the second half of the month was very busy. Total clinic office visits in January were 1,738 compared to 1,418 in December.

For the hospital, gross patient revenue for the month of January totaled $1,815,214, which was a $94,070 increase over the previous month.

The hospital net operating loss for January was $193,547. The net loss was $118,277 after the addition of sales tax revenue.

What is burdening the hospital and the convalescent home is the need to rely on “agency” nursing staff to meet the requirement of law. Nurses from the agencies cost twice as much as a normal staff employee. This is because the rent-a-nurses are paid travel, possibly housing and higher pay in order to be flexible anywhere. Also, the agency gets a commission.

Right now, the medical center is running ads for three full-time night RNs, two part time night LPNs and per diem RN/LPN. Rita Goodrich said the nursing home is “working with” any applicants for whatever length of shift they can handle: two hours, four hours, or whatever. She encouraged anyone in Alva who has qualified nursing friends or relatives to consider giving Alva a try.

Part of the problem is even though nurse training facilities are located at both the university and Northwest Technical Center, many students have to cut down on working hours in order to have time to do their studies or prepare for essential exams.

Board Chairman Jason Gaisford said it appears the medical center may be on hold until July before receiving any benefit from their application to be classified as a critical care facility. CEO Kandice Allen said the same thing in her report. The hospital is awaiting another “survey” to make sure they have made all the modifications needed to meet the critical access rules.

New staff named at Tuesday's meeting were:

• Dixie Griggs, nursing home housekeeping

• Amy Kleinvachter, nursing home nursing

• Cember McCurry, nursing home housekeeping

• Aide Montes, nursing home housekeeping

• Emily Nayar, physicians assistant in the ER

• Jerry Roper, hospital housekeeping

• Tabitha Schultz, the Homestead

• Michael Tidmore, radiology tech

• Erin Paige Little, Lawrence Clinic PA

• Mark Nichols, IT clinical analyst (husband of Jennifer Nichols, ARNP)

Swing bed usage in the month of December: four of those admissions had an average stay of 7.7 nights. Two swing beds continue to be patients. Four were transfers from an outside hospital, and three were admissions from the SMC acute care unit.

Dr. Michael Lawrence and CEO Kandice Allen attended an SSM retreat Jan. 24-26 in Santa Monica, California. The retreat focused on the many challenges hospitals face in a broken health care system trying to find its way to provide efficient and timely care at an affordable cost.

Allen also attended a meeting with Chuck Skillings to focus on strategies to help financially bridge the funding gap between PPS and critical access, as money is extremely tight at this time.