The Alva Hospital Authority, which oversees Share Medical Center, The Homestead, and Share Convalescent Home, met Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 5:30 p.m. Darlene Sanderson chaired the meeting in the absence of Jason Gaisford.

The best news of the evening came when the board members were told that the nursing home has 54 patients, which is near capacity, and The Homestead is 100 percent full. CEO Kandice Allen said this is the first time in the history of The Homestead it has reached full occupancy. Homestead manager Kelly Parker was not present. The Homestead in the past has converted semi-private rooms to private. As clients leave, some of those may have to be converted back to semi-private.

Financially, the gross patient revenue for all three facilities for August 2016 was $1,948,915. The hospital increased by $173,785, the nursing home increased by $31,788, and The Homestead increased by $9,907. Total patient days for August for the hospital came in at 157, compared to 134 in July. Total clinic office visits for August were 1,431 compared to 973 in July. The nursing home average daily census was up to 54.2 compared to 50.3 in July.

The operating expenses excluding salaries, benefits and depreciation for August totaled $409,497, a decrease of $86,659 compared to the prior month. Even with the positive news, the net operating loss for August was $132,556. After sales tax revenue was applied, the net loss for August was $68,570.

The hospital had to draw about a $140,000 line of credit in August to help pay bills. The ending cash balance for August was $283,067 whereas the ending cash balance at the end of July was $87,462.

Also, a new employee has been working hard on the “unbilled” patient statements. These are hospital bills that came back because of changed addresses or other reasons. The new effort at researching new addresses has paid off. In July, the unbilled amount was $821,187. At the end of August, the amount had fallen to $370,637, a $450,000 improvement.

Other employees hired for the month:

Convalescent Home: Carrie Roland, Nathan Castillo, Crystal Peitz, Brittany Thiel, Shali Strena, Cheney Bird, Cheyeen Jones, Kara Johnson, Amber Hawley and Destanee Bolar.

Urgent Care: Kassy Yauk, Rhonda Pratt and Jennifer Nichols.

Kinzie Clinic: Laura Lawrence.

The Homestead: Teresa Young.

Hospital: Dalton Reutlinger in maintenance, Carrie Phillips in housekeeping and Jackie Bell in the laboratory.

CEO Kandice Allen mentioned that effective Oct. 1 the SMC Radiology readings will be done by Diagnostic Imaging Associates out of Tulsa, which has multiple radiologists for quicker turn around. Also, the firm has the only breast specialist in the state reading mammograms.

Also new physician Michael Lawrence has been very busy, seeing 144 patients in eight days of work in August. Allen also mentioned that telemedicine billings because of the work of Dr. Rader are beginning to help. It took some time to get the software working correctly for that type of billing.