Hospital Board
Meets
Claiborne Progress
November 28, 2007
By W. Lee Brame
Correspondent
With a full agenda on their plate (due to the
cancellation of October's board meeting), Mayor Joe Tyler Duncan called to
order the meeting of the Claiborne County Hospital Board of Directors at 6
p.m. After approving the minutes from the September meeting, and hearing a
subcommittee recommendation to approve the Quality Management Report, the
hospital's new financial manager reported on the financial health of the
hospital.
Two months worth
of data was presented and the bottom line towed that the hospital lost money
during the previous months. The number of patients admitted to the hospital
was lower than expected and the number of days each patient spent in the
hospital was also lower than average. Positive figures for Nursing Home,
Home Health and the Emergency Room operations were not sufficient to offset
the losses at the hospital. Review of the year's figures.
The financial
report led to a discussion of a registration bottleneck Duncan noted that
each time be had come into the hospital, that hospital registration asked
the same set of questions about his insurance, next of kin, address and
other administrative details. Duncan asked if there isn't some way to speed
this part of the admission process by pulling the relevant data from the
computer files. Board members agreed that this should be investigated and
that the hospital should find a way to make check-ins easier and more
efficient. County Attorney James Estep III and hospital administrative
officers indicated that some of this may not be possible because of the
federal patient privacy act, but that this is a project that the hospital
should pursue during the winter months.
Moving back to
the financial report the board voted unanimously to approve the report. The
board also discussed a draft capital equipment requirements report. Although
several items will require further investigation and cost analysis, the
board did vote to approve the expenditure of funds to replace one section of
roof on the old building. Repairs may begin (weather permitting) before the
end of the current calendar year.
The board also
discussed and approved a bank resolution that would permit Claiborne County
Hospital to move funds electronically (on-line) between hospital accounts
with direct board approval for each transfer. This resolution was not
intended to allow the hospital administration to spend non-budgeted funds
without board approval.
The board also reviewed and approved renewal
of the Emergency Room Services contract and the Anesthesia Services contract
as well as a physician recruitment proposal. For hospital employees, the
board also approved payment of Christmas bonuses at the same level as the
previous year.
As a final note, board members also will start a
periodic review of the Hospital Bylaws.
