Alva Review-Courier -

The new surgeon, Dr. Ian Daniel, is scheduled for his first day on April 13 at Share Medical Center (SMC). He will spend the day getting acquainted with medical staff, and in the afternoon he will be in clinic seeing consults. “We would anticipate him scheduling for procedure for May 4,” reported SMC CEO Kandice Allen. She told the Alva Hospital Authority (AHA) Tuesday, that she had five patient consultations scheduled with more referrals coming in daily. His anticipated rotation at SMC will be every other Thursday or Friday.

Dr. Daniel was signed on through the services of InReach. The company has also been working with SMC to locate an orthopedist. At the beginning of March, Dr. Tupper and his wife Dianne met with the hospital and have agreed to sign on. Credentialing and securing equipment will take some time. “I anticipate that startup will take 90 to 100 days to get everything in place,” said Allen.

The hospital had five cataract surgeries with Dr. Hummel during March, and nine patients were scheduled for the week after the March 28 AHA meeting. The March general surgery day was canceled due to sickness, and the hospital was unable to find a last-minute anesthesia replacement. All patients have been rescheduled. There are two general surgery days with Dr. Gregg scheduled for April on the 11th and 25th.

Nicole McDowell, RN, has begun work as the new swing bed coordinator at SMC. She came to the hospital from Buffalo where she was director of nursing. “That program took a significant hit during Covid,” Allen said of the swing bed service. “We are looking to breathe some life back into it, and get some patients back to the area to get their rehab done here.”

Two doctors in training will be getting experience at hospitals. Shianne Farris will be going to Sedalia, Missouri, and Courtney Mapes will be with OU Medical in Tulsa.

In her written report, Allen noted the West End clinic had a total visit count of 577 in February while the Downtown clinic saw 669 and 30 patients were seen at Freedom.

CFO Report

CFO Angelica Brady reported the Share Medical accounts payable balance for February of $984,833 was higher than the previous month. They were anticipating a payment from CMS but it did not come in until later. There was one piece of the settlement in dispute, but that has been resolved. SMC received $662,000 and another $110,000 will be coming with the resolution of the dispute. That will help to get the accounts payable balance back down.

The hospital has had added costs in their move to MediTech (electronic health records). Brady said, “It seems like every interface is $10,000 to $15,000.” She said meanwhile old systems are still running, and costing the hospital, during this changeover so they are paying for dual services which is causing accounts payable to go up a little bit.

Brady spoke about the huge impact Jaden Lewis has had in central supply, seeing that supplies in stock are used before ordering more. “I think we’ll continue to see those costs go down,” said Brady. Lewis is getting contract pricing and working to get shipping costs down.

Hospital accounts receivable decreased by $228,723 during February with a balance of $3,675,551 at the end of the month. Gross patient revenue for the month was $1,615,605, a decrease of $261,454 compared to January. Total patient days for February were 63 compared to 79 in January. Total clinic office visits in February were 1,977 compared to 1,831 in January. The hospital had a net loss of $290,007 for February. The hospital is showing about $100,000 less in gross patient revenue for the year to date than last year at this time.

“The biggest piece is that our operating expenses are up year-to-date. We closed out the month at $1.1 million in operating expenses which is down from January but is up in comparison over last year ($970,000),” said Brady.

As of March 28, the hospital was 96 days from going live with MediTech, which Brady said “scared me a little bit.” She said they were about 85 percent complete in the data gathering needed and about 50 percent complete in their billing. Integrated testing will start in mid-April with MediTech doing much of that work. In May will be the mock-live for SMC to walk through the processes to make sure everything is “bullet proof.”

Share Convalescent Home

Administrator Kelly Parker reported gross patient revenue for Share Convalescent Home was $185,558 in February, and after deductions the total operating revenue was $169,546 which was down “quite a bit” from the previous year. He said year to date the nursing home is down about $700,000 from last year.

Expenses for February were also down with total operating expenses of $135,325 compared to $283,258 in February last year. Year to date expenses are down about $300,000 compared to the same time last year. The net loss was $65,000.

The number of patients is still low, but Parker said satisfaction is high according to patient surveys which measure six benchmarks. Nearly all exceed the WeCareConnect benchmarks, with two just slightly below.

Share Convalescent received approval on their HVAC plans from the State of Oklahoma that afternoon (March 28), Parker said. “So we’ll probably be having conversations about what steps we want to take to move forward.”

Homestead

Parker reported the Homestead retirement center had operating revenue of $48,344 for the February and operating expenses of $45,022 for a net operating income of $3,322.

However, net income for the year to date is $19,471 compared to $60,560 at this time in 2022.

The Homestead has a new director who has been the accounting supervisor for the nursing home and the Homestead. Parker said she had been there a little over a week, and he has been spending quite a bit of time there trying to get her acclimated.

Other Business

The next meeting of the AHA was set for April 25, but after discussion, the trustees decided to move up a week to April 18.

Greg Bowman spoke about the need to get the word out about all the services offered at Share Medical Center. For example, when his heart doctor wanted him to go to Oklahoma City for a blood test, he told the doctor it could be done in Alva so he would not have to travel.

AHA Chairman Jason Gasiford told about someone he knew from school who now lives in Kansas. The woman’s mother needed medical help, and was treated well at SMC. The daughter wrote telling how much she appreciated that help was available in Alva.

Allen also told about an emergency room trip for a child with a broken arm. The next day she went to an orthopedist in Oklahoma City who said the ER did such a good job of setting it, they didn’t need to do anything else.

A video of the entire meeting may be viewed at http://www.AlvaReviewCourier.com. Click on the Video tab.