CCH Board Meeting
August 2, 2006
by Lee Brame
Among the many
items of interest discussed at the July 25th Claiborne County Hospital Board
meeting was a unanimous decision to support the medical training of local
resident Danielle Barnard. Danielle Barnard is currently attending medical
school and has expressed an interest in returning to the area to practice
medicine. The Hospital Board approved a decision sponsor her medical
education under the Clinical Scholars Program. A major stipulation for
accepting the sponsorship contract is a commitment to return to practice
medicine in the local community as an associate of the hospital.
Board members
agreed that these scholarships were an effective way of supporting the local
community as well as individual medical students. Danielle Barnard is the
daughter of Lynn and Janet Barnard.
The Hospital Board
also approved the financial report for the past fiscal year. Readers of the
Claiborne Progress will recall that the hospital’s patient load had
decreased significantly with the changes in Tenncare rolls and that expected
revenues had decreased. In addition to administrative and management
changes, many staff members accepted pay cuts and changes in work schedules
to lessen impacts to the hospital.
These efforts were
successful and despite a $6 million dollar decrease in overall revenues, the
hospital managed, barely, to stay in the black while continuing to make the
necessary investments in technology to maintain a modern health care
facility. Cutting administrative costs also resulted in the Board’s
decision last month to return some of the salary cuts to many staff
members. The Claiborne County Hospital paid just under $14 million dollars
in local salaries during the last fiscal year.
Efforts to improve
hospital services also resulted in several notable achievements. Last
month, the hospital nursing home went an entire month without any personnel
turnover. While many businesses choose to believe that hiring new and
replacement workers are an unavoidable cost of doing business, hospital
administrator Tim Brown noted that a national nursing association computed
that it cost an organization almost $60,000 in administrative costs to
replace a single registered nurse in a nursing facility. Mr. Brown and the
Board thanked the staff for their loyalty and efforts during a tough year.
