Alva Review-Courier -

Two specialty clinics were held at Share Medical Center in the past week. Michael Scott Jackson, MD, held an obstetrics/gynecology clinic on May 26, and Andrea Partida, DO, will be at Share for an OB/GYN clinic next Wednesday. Both are with Integris Bass.

In addition, on Thursday, May 27, William Garner, MD, a cardiologist, with the Cardiovascular Health Clinic of Oklahoma City, was to hold his first clinic at Share Medical.

Share Medical Center CEO Kandice Allen told the Alva Hospital Authority Tuesday that Dr. Scott Burk and Dr. Chris Burk are expected to be here around Sept. 1.

Dr. Donald Ransom’s last day for surgery at Share Medical will be June 29. Allen is working with a seasoned general surgeon to provide this service going forward. She said the doctor from Gutherie would be able to cover a portion of the surgery. She is talking with SSM – St. Anthony’s about getting help with the rest.

Allen said Michelle Hamilton will begin work on June 7 in the business office as revenue cycle manager. Elizabeth Solomon has been hired for registration.

Allen provided a written IT status report. The hospital is looking at cloud-based backup solutions. The Waynoka clinic is moving to a fiber line soon to prevent ongoing issues with phones and internet.

Allen spoke about attending Healthcare Day at the capitol to push Senate Bill 131 on Medicaid expansion. Although the effort was not successful, she said many Oklahoma Hospital Association people helped legislators draft some guardrails for insurance companies involved in the expansion.

The number of hospital patients was down to one on Tuesday, but Allen said they had been averaging four to six patients. Total number of patient days in April was 70 including swingbed days.

There were 203 patients seen in the ER during April with 22 admitted and 21 transferred to a higher level of care. There were 160 patients discharge home. Allen described the ER as “crazy busy.”

The Alva Hospital Authority trustees approved the appointment to courtesy staff of the three doctors involved in specialty clinics: Michael Scott Jackson, MD; Andrea Partida, DO; and William Garner, MD.

The trustees welcomed Greg Bowman as the new city council representative on the board. Other trustees present were Jason Gaisford, Dr. Ken Brown, and Dr. Halah Simon.

Share Medical Center Financials

CFO Chris Lauderdale wasn’t able to attend Tuesday’s meeting so assistant Steve Knox filled in. He reported the operating cash balance for April was $497,404 representing 15.3 days of operating expenses, excluding depreciation. Hospital accounts receivable balance was $5,919,792, an increase of $62,218 during the month.

Accounts payable balance for April was $332,718, representing 24 days of operating expenses excluding costs related to salaries, benefits and depreciation.

Hospital gross patient revenue for the month totaled $1,593,992, which was an increase of $6,230 compared to the prior month. Total patient days for April were 70 compared to 120 in March. Total clinic office visits for April were 1,565 compared to 1,588 in March.

Hospital operating expenses excluding salaries, benefits, and depreciation for April totaled $368,444, a decrease of $131,095 compared to the prior month. Hospital salaries and wages for April totaled $443,270, a decrease of $14,911 compared to March. Knox said the decrease in salaries was mainly due to the hospital paying a premium Covid wage during March.

The net loss for April was $52,362.

Knox said the auditor with BKD presented a preliminary report to the finance committee. The 2019-2020 final audit is expected to be available for the June board meeting. Work on the current year’s audit will begin in June.

Knox and Lauderdale are working on operating and capital improvement budgets for the next fiscal year and will present those at the June meeting.

Early in the pandemic, Medicare advanced the hospital eight months of projected Medicare payments. This April, payback began with Medicare withholding 25 percent of payments. This will continue until the advance is paid off. No interest is being charged. Knox said this will impact the cash flow for the hospital.

Share Medical and TruBridge are working to clean up old accounts on the accounts receivable list. The majority of the unpaid accounts are self-pay.

Knox praised new Share Medical administrative assistant Kiki Bowden for the work she has done in catching up on statistics. The charts show office visits by clinic, office visits by provider and ER visits by provider. Allen said the Freedom and Waynoka clinics are linked to other clinics so they aren’t shown separately in the office visits by clinic. She said about 10 patients per day are being seen at each of those two clinics.