Contract approved with doctor for Share ER

 


The Alva Hospital Authority voted Tuesday to employ Scott Evans, D.O. as a staff member for Share Medical. He will be working in the emergency room. The vote followed an executive session to discuss the employment agreement.

In March, the hospital contracted with Dr. Scott Burke and Dr. Chris Burke to move back to Alva to practice. They are expected to arrive in June.

With stimulus funds and the recently forgiven Payroll Protection Plan money, Share Medical Center has survived the pandemic well. The funds have allowed the purchase of new equipment and supplies to deal with Covid-19, and the hospital still has money left.

CEO’s Report

In her report to the hospital authority Tuesday, Share Medical CEO Kandice Allen said the hospital welcomed back two nurses: Shelly Koblitz, an operating room nurse, and Tabitha Nutter in nursing.

She reported the Crowdstrike antivirus software has been deployed to all devices. There have been no events so far; if any event is detected, Mark Nichols and David Selby will be notified by call, email and text repeatedly until acknowledged. The host will be separated from the network, and a report will be generated of what was touched so the issue can quickly be remediated.

There has not been a significant alert on the hospital’s firewall for the past 30 days. All traffic has been blocked from most other countries as well as an entire malicious IP range from California that was constantly testing the firewall.

The Knowbe4 system is used to test staff constantly to determine if they will click, reply or open suspicious attachments. They have the opportunity to report these emails, and the reported emails have doubled in the previous six months with 417 reported emails, 59 clicks, no replies and four attachments opened. With embarrassment, Allen said she failed on one of the test emails on Tuesday so would have to do remediation training.

Logan Meriweather, an intern from NWOSU, has been updating social media for the hospital. He is now working full time but will be married in the summer and relocating after that. Allen said he will be coming back periodically to work with the hospital.

The hospital had 31 patients admitted during March. The emergency department saw 235 patients during the month. Dr. Lawrence treated 81 patients and transferred eight. Dr. Evans treated 65 patients and transferred five. Dr. Mefford treated 31 patients and transferred one. Emily Nayar treated 58 patients and transferred five.

Allen reported the Waynoka and Freedom clinics are both off to a good start. “We are pleased with the patient volume at this point,” she said.

Allen said a surgeon was being interviewed last week.

With TruBridge getting billing sent out, the revenue cycle is going better. There were problems with the previous billing company not doing their job but the current company is getting everything caught up. “I feel confident going forward that we will not be seeing this problem again,” said Allen.

CFO Report

CFO Chris Lauderdale summarized the written report provided to the trustees. Share Medical Center had an increase in the accounts receivable balance of $46,938 during March. Lauderdale said this is due to issues with the previous billing company. Hospital wages decreased because payroll no longer includes the Covid bonus. That ended March 12. The hospital had a net profit of $654,075 for the month.

Lauderdale said Share Convalescent Home is doing well. He praised Administrator Kelly Parker for “a really good job managing expenses.” The nursing home had a net profit for March of $87,041.

There was little to report on the Homestead financials. Lauderdale said the revenue and expenses continue to be holding steady every month. Net income for March was $25,640.

Steve Knox reported on stimulus funds. After capital projects and expenses, the hospital still has $367,379.01 as of April 20. Proposed additional expenses and capital projects are a Stryker Advanced Imaging Platform – Laparosopic Tower – for surger and furniture for the lobbies.

The convalescent home has used nearly all of stimulus funds available. Only $1,062.40 is left after the remaining commitments to projects are paid.

Share Convalescent Home

Parker reported the Share Convalescent Home saw a higher number of skilled nursing patient days. Skilled nursing care is reimbursed at a higher rate than regular care. They had one discharge and one death with three new admissions.

The WeCareConnect 90 day satisfaction survey for residents and families showed 88 percent satisfaction with activities which exceeds the benchmark. Satisfaction with staff and with housekeeping was 75 and 74 percent respectively. Transportation and overall satisfaction were at 71 percent each. Dining services received the lowest rating at 61 percent.

However, the 90 day results on employee satisfaction were quite high with all but one category receiving 92 to 100 percent. The only low point was in overall job satisfaction with 68 percent which Parker said indicates employees like the work atmosphere but are not so enamored with the work they have to do.

The engineer was on site in March to review the HVAC system and what is needed. He will be making blueprints of the entire system. Parker hopes the work can be done without financing as they have been putting funds back for that purpose.

The wander control system that keeps residents from leaving the building without supervision is working well. Parker said they had some problems with strong winds overpowering the magnets, causing doors to open and trigger alarms. They have been making adjustments to fix that.

Parker said Key Club members came to the nursing home to dig out brush and weeds. They accomplished a lot, he said.

The Homestead

The Homestead had two people move out and one move in. They are planning their first out-of-town trip since Covid. They will have a drawing to choose people to go to Kiowa to a restaurant.

Work on the community garden has begun. Parker said residents aren’t working in the garden, but they love watching others working there.

Share Foundation

The Foundation has received five scholarship applications to evaluate. They will soon be choosing the successful applicant for the scholarship award.

A video of the meeting may be seen at http://www.AlvaReviewCourier.com.

 

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