1850 Old Knoxville Road

Tazewell, TN  37879

CCH Board Considers Full Agenda

Claiborne Progress

August 1, 2007

Lee Brame

Correspondent

The Board of Directors of Claiborne County Hospital and Nursing Home met on Tuesday, July 24, to consider a full agenda that included discussion of the coming year's budget

After review and approval of the previous month's minutes, Tim Brown, hospital administrator reviewed the end of the current fiscal year's financial report.

Unlike many rural hospitals and some city hospitals, Claiborne County Hospital usually manages to operate with sufficient profit to allow for investment in staff training as well as medical equipment upgrades. The hospital itself and emergency services both lost money during the month of June and overall, for the entire year while Home Health Care and the Nursing Home both made sufficient money to cover the losses.  Overall, the hospital made just over $7,000 in June.

The hospital mailed to make their expected revenues due to a low number of hospital admissions and a significant decrease in emergency ambulance runs.

Some might consider this to be a marginal operation, but board members noted that the hospital was successfully serving a larger number of patients each year while continuing to make capital improvements necessary to practice modern medicine.

A visiting administrator from Wellspring Partners (who are currently managing the financial turn-around of Knoxville's Baptist Health System) complemented the board and hospital staff for their successful operation.

The board discussed progress in restoring the Baptist Health System to financial health and Tom Reitinger noted that Wellspring Partners were "guardedly optimistic" in their assessment

Board members, staff, and Wellspring representatives discussed several issues that impacted hospital profitability and noted that some physicians fail to realize the logistical costs of sending patients away from their local hospital base.  For instance, many local patients who could be successfully treated at the Baker Cancer Treatment Center spend hours commuting back and forth to Knoxville for treatment. Many physicians also fail to realize that the Claiborne County Hospital's new 16-slice CT scanner has significantly greater capability than CT scanners in several Knoxville facilities. One of the keys to maintaining a successful local hospital is to keep local physicians aware of local capabilities and to note on patient diagnostic referrals that certain treatments can be performed locally. Patients have a choice in treatment location.

Board members also heard a report on the hospital's private duty nursing program. After hearing the report, the board voted to grant the hospital administrator authority lease office space for home health and the rehabilitation program (with authority to sublease).

The board also considered an offer to purchase the lot on which the old library was housed. The board could see no near term use for the property and decided to pass on the offer. The property, approximately one-third of an acre, is not big enough for many commercial uses.

The board concluded the evening with an analysis of the proposed budget for the coming fiscal year.  A major assumption for the budget year is that hospital volumes will remain relatively constant and that current physician recruitment for primary care physicians and specialists will be successful.

For hospital employees, the budget also includes a three percent pay raise under the Pay for Performance Plan. That's good news for the county since the hospital (and it's related operations) is one of the biggest employers in the county with an annual payroll of almost $16 million dollars.