Alva Review-Courier -

Share Medical Center is working toward an opening date of Monday, April 5, for the Waynoka outreach clinic. Located in the Waynoka Medical Clinic building, the facility will be open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Mondays, Paige Kruckenberg, PA-C will be there while Dr. Bryce Galbraith will at the clinic on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Hospital Billing

Share Medical CEO Kandice Allen also told the Alva Hospital Authority Monday that Dr. Galbraith is moving April 5 from the Professional Building downtown to the West End Clinic at Share Medical Center. This move is part of the Rural Health designation for the west end. Allen said that Gwen Holderby, APRN will join Steve Madrid, PA in the Professional Building practice.

Since June 2020, Share Medical Center has been working with TruBridge, a company contracted to handle medical billing for the hospital. There have been many delays and bumps in the road. Allen said last week was “the best week we’ve had since June.” Patients are getting a lot of statements from the hospital “finally,” she said. She apologized to patients for the long delay but is optimistic that the system is working at last. Hopefully within the next 60-90 days the backlog of statements with account balances due from patients will be caught up.

Employee Satisfaction Survey

Share Medical recently conducted a second employee satisfaction survey which showed improved scores over the first one from a year ago. Hospital Authority trustees were given copies of the results. All six questions on the survey showed improved scores.

For example, on the statement “We treat one another with dignity and respect: I feel my ideas, thoughts and feelings are respected and listened to” the score improved from 3.5 to 4.0 on a five point scale.

Allen said the hospital is working on communication which is the most important and the thing people struggle with the most. They are holding weekly meetings with all department managers and a second weekly meeting of smaller groups. She said they still have some work to do in getting communication through managers to the people in their departments.

Overall comments were positive, said Allen, with comments about the teamwork and family environment. “They feel supported and feel like they’re a part of the family.”

“To take that even further,” Allen continued, “today we had a rep from Air Evac come, and he said, ‘We love to fly into Share. It’s our favorite place. There’s just something different about it. When we come in here we feel like family.’

“And then one of the nursing instructors said, ‘You know, I like what I see. I like the teamwork.’”

Personnel Changes

Share Medical welcomed new staff member Christi Hand, RN in nursing. She has 26 years of ED experience. Shelby Koblitz, RN is also an addition in surgery.

In maintenance, Gerald Benson has retired. Brad Wallis has been named the Maintenance Supervisor.

Northwest Technology LPN students began spring clinicals March 8.

Other Hospital News

The hospital had three swing bed patients during February for a total of 15 swing bed days.

There were 34 patients admitted to the hospital with 15 for observation and 19 for acute care. Two inpatients were transferred to a higher level of care.

The emergency room saw 183 patients during February with 34 admitted and 26 transferred to a higher level of care. Of the total, 126 patients were discharged home.

Share Medical has resumed surgical procedures and is working hard to get everyone scheduled from the earlier backlog.

Upfront collections for February totaled $24,513.52.