Alva Review-Courier -

The Alva Hospital Authority (AHA) held a special meeting on Monday, Jan. 29, after canceling their regular meeting the preceding week. Vice Chair Dr. Bo Hannaford presided at the meeting. He welcomed Connor Martin who was appointed to fill Jason Gaisford’s unexpired term on the board.

CEO Report

Share Medical Center CEO Kandice Allen gave some highlights from her written report. Last week was the kickoff meeting with Jill Horn, PMC regional director, and Mica Harris, Senior Life Solutions regional director, to begin the first steps toward opening a new intensive outpatient group therapy program for seniors. The target date for Senior Life Solutions is July 2024. The program will be housed at the hospital.

Dr. Addison Roberts, D.O., a board-certified general surgeon from Tulsa, will be on board Feb. 19 to begin seeing patients. Allen said that orthopedic surgeon Dr. Joel Tupper continues to be fully booked up.

The transfer of Share Convalescent Home to Beadles is still awaiting legal approval for a deed transfer to the City of Alva. In the interim, Dayna Jordan is assisting Kelly Parker with new hires and other business as needed.

Allen said the installation of patient care boards and call light system should be finished around the second week of February. She said Feb. 9 is the tentative completion date.

The hospital plans to hire a collection agent full-time to represent Share Medical in small claims cases. Statements for the self-pay accounts were sent out in December.

Survival Flight will be in the hospital lobby on Wednesday, Feb. 7, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to answer questions about their service and to handle signups.

The weight loss clinic is now in operation at the hospital.

The new mammogram machine has been ordered. The earliest date for its arrival is March 23.

The new chemical analyzer for the lab arrived Jan. 29. Allen said the lab will be doing “mirror testing,” running tests on both old and new equipment to make sure the results are correct on the new equipment.

CFO Report

Since no business meeting was held in December, the board looked at both November and December financial reports.

CFO Angelica Brady went over the highlights. The December cash operating balance was $44,961 representing two days of operating expenses excluding depreciation. The accounts receivable balance was $4,580,236, a decrease of $58,407 during the month.

Accounts payable balance for December was $1,490,484 representing 142.9 days of operating expenses.

Hospital gross patient revenue for the month totaled $2,024,328, an increase of $74,954 compared to the prior month. Total patient days for December were 67 compared to 57 in November. Total clinic office visits for December were 1,617 compared to 1,607 in November.

The hospital had a net operating loss for December of 24,731.

Brady said the accounts receivable dropped due to getting bills out faster. December included three payrolls instead of the usual two, which led to the net loss. She said the cost report was filed in November. In January, the hospital received $590,000 from that cost report (Medicare and Medicaid). In addition, they received $190,000 on the interim rate adjustment to their reimbursement.

Audit Report

The hospital had a good FY 2022 audit report (for the year ending June 30, 2022) with only one finding, said Brady. That deficiency in internal control is due to the small size of the hospital. Even with two financial officers, there aren’t enough people to provide a diversity of financial control.

Gaisford, who attended the meeting, said it was also noted the hospital allowed for more bad debt than the actual bad debt. He said, “They (Forvis, who conducted the audit) gave us a percentage.” The hospital used that percentage, but they collected better than the percentage.

He also noted that concern is expressed if a hospital shows a loss, especially for four years, but that’s not a concern for Share due to the sales tax used for operating expenses.

Medical Staff

Dr. Scott Burk reported the medical staff executive committee met Jan. 18. He presented Paige Kruckenberg, PA-C in dermatology for appointment to courtesy staff, and the appointment was approved.

Kruckenberg will available for appointments at the west end clinic.

Share Convalescent Home

Administrator Kelly Parker reported Share Convalescent Home had a December average census of 29.6 but January will be up an average of two patient days. He said in January they started with 31 residents and are finishing the month with 33. They have had an increase in paid days and in skilled nursing patients, which should result in improved nursing home revenue.

Starting Feb. 1, the nursing home will end their contract with Polaris as remote MDS coordinator. Beadles will be taking over that role. He said they are working with Beadles to coordinate staffing. Beadles personnel worked quite a few shifts at SCH in January. He said Beadles has been building up staff to handle a doubled patient load (for when they take over Share Convalescent) so the use of their staff at Share has been helping Beadles too.

Parker said he and Dayna Jordan from Beadles have been working on having her take over Director of Nursing duties at Share Convalescent.

The Homestead

Parker reported The Homestead retirement center has signed four new contracts for residents. They are working on keeping the activity calendar full.

The Homestead food service is continuing to provide meals on wheels and guest meals. They are now promoting meals for the public. He said the Kiwanis Club will be moving their meetings to The Homestead.

New Officers

With the changes in board membership, the AHA held an election of officers. Dr. Bo Hannaford was elected chair with Dr. Ken Brown as vice chair. Dr. Halah Simon was elected secretary.

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