Alva Review-Courier -

Share Medical Center CEO Kandice Allen says Joel Tupper, MD, has his first orthopedic surgery scheduled around the middle of July. “We’re so excited to get started on that,” she told the Alva Hospital Authority trustees on Tuesday.

Trustees present for the meeting were Chairman Jason Gaisford, Jay Randals, Dr. Kenneth Brown, Dr. Bo Hannaford, and Greg Bowman. Dr. Halah Simon and Dr. Scott Burk were absent.

Quality Control

A presentation by Darlene Bainbridge on SQSS about quality control took a large part of the meeting time. “The state has a grant that brings me out here to work with all the critical access hospitals in Oklahoma on survival strategies,” said Bainbridge who last visited Share Medical almost 10 years ago. Bainbridge outlined her extensive career including being CEO for a couple of critical care access hospitals.

“It’s really hard to find consultants that understand us, and our payment model and dynamics,” Bainbridge said. “We are critical to the survival of the healthcare system at large. There’s a lot of people out there who don’t understand what would happen if all of a sudden these smaller hospitals closed up, but it would be a huge impact on the healthcare system.

“I think Covid is a great example of that because I had, including your hospital, I had hospitals calling me and saying our health departments are telling us we have to take ventilator patients, or we have to do this or we have to do that. Can we do that?”

Bainbridge discussed the role of critical access hospitals, “Historically we’ve kind of been perceived to be band-aid stations. One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that there’s a level of compassion and caring and attention to detail that can exist in our smaller hospitals sometimes much easier than it can exist in our bigger hospitals. It’s nothing against the bigger hospitals. It’s just the dynamics they deal with.”

She spoke about the need for quality control in all areas of healthcare. “We used to be an industry that could fix our issues one event at a time, over and over again. We could swing the same sword at the same dragon. We could do that. We can’t do it anymore. We have to understand what our system issues are; we need to fix our issues so those things go away. We’ve seen a lot of our hospitals use ‘just do its’ for that.”

Allen said that Share Medical uses “denials” instead of “just do its” to handle problems. For example, they have a denials management team that tracks why physician orders end up with denials on claims

Bainbridge said, “There’s a lot of money that lives in denials.” It’s not only money and delays in billing. She said a lot of time is consumed in tracking the problem and fixing it.

In conclusion, Bainbridge said, “Again, I just want to congratulate you all. You had a great DMV survey, a great risk management survey. You should be very proud of what your hospital has accomplished and will continue to accomplish.”

CEO Report

Other than the update on Dr. Tupper, Allen didn’t provide an oral report. She referred trustees to her written report provided in their packet. In surgeries she reported Dr. Hummel had four cataract cases in May. Dr. Gregg performed 17 procedures. Dr. Daniel performed three surgeries, and after clinic visits with 11 patients. Of those, six are expected to be scheduled for procedures. Allen reported on equipment arriving for the surgery department.

In May the Urgent Care Clinic saw 398 patients. Bryan Nutter covered Memorial Day weekend.

Allen reported most of her time had been spent with Meditech in preparation for Expanse to go live July 1.

CFO Report

CFO Angelica Brady provided financial reports and the budgets for next year for approval by the trustees. Share Medical Center ended May with an operating cash balance of $116,254, representing 3.2 days of operating expenses, excluding depreciation. The hospital accounts receivable balance was $4,047,261, a decrease of $136,139 from April. Unbilled days went from 20 in April to 12.3 in May while billed days were 61.7 compared to 55.5 in April.

Accounts payable balance for May was $857,857, representing 47.4 days of operating expenses excluding costs related to salaries, benefits and depreciation. Hospital gross patient revenue for May totaled $1,719,510 which was an increase of $114,662 compared to the prior month. Patient days for May were 90 compared to 78 in April. Total clinic office visits for May were 1,643 compared to 1,538 in April. The hospital had a net income for May of $13,361.

Brady presented the 2024 budget which shows total operating revenue of $11,905,500 and total operating expenses of $13,276,700. With non-operating revenue of $6,500 in interest and $1,567,000 in sales tax with interest expense deducted of $163,200, the bottom line shows a profit of $39,100.

Share Convalescent Home Administrator Kelly Parker did not attend the meeting, but he submitted a written report.

Brady went over the financial information. The nursing home had an operating cash balance of $178,949 at the end of May, representing 23.6 days of operating expenses. Accounts receivable balance of $1,355,607 was a decrease of $17,723 from last month. Accounts payable balance for May was $57,652. Gross patient revenue for the month totaled $217,991 which was an increase of $9,294 compared to April. Total patient days were 957 compared to 917 in May. The convalescent home had a net loss for May of $4,914.

Presenting the 2024 budget for Share Convalescent Home, Brady listed total operating revenue of $3,107,000 compared to $3,975,272 in last year’s budget. Total operating expenses are projected to be $3,112,865. With the addition of interest income of $6,900, a profit of $1,035 is projected.

Because of Parker’s absence there was no Homestead report. Financial statements show total operating revenue of $45,112 in May while total operating expenses were $56,091 for a net loss of $10,979.

Credentialing

Trustees approved credentials for two physicians. Reji Pappy, MD was approved for reappointment to courtesy staff in cardiology.

Joel Tupper, MD, the new orthopedic surgeon, was appointed to courtesy staff.

Officer Election

In final action, the trustees elected officers for the new fiscal year beginning in July. Only one candidate was nominated for each of the three offices, and the slate of officers will remain the same. Gaisford will continue as chairman of the board, Hannaford will be vice chairman, and Simon will serve as board secretary.