Wal-Mart/Nexcare
to Donate Ambulance to Claiborne County Hospital
Claiborne Progress
September 27,2006
By W. Lee Brame
The Claiborne County Hospital Board gathered on
Tuesday evening Sept. 19, to review hospital operations during the previous
month and to hear the good news that Claiborne County was the co-winner of
the Wal-Mart/Nexcare bandage competition.
As many local readers are aware, Nexcare and
Wal-Mart agreed to provide a fully equipped ambulance to the community that
purchased the most Nexcare bandages at the community Wal-Mart. One of the
provisions of the competition was that the promotion could not be advertised
except by word of mouth.
The competition was designed to keep things
equal in rural communities by choosing the winner based on the percentage of
sales of the local Wal-Mart. While Nexcare bandage sales increased
though-out the U.S., two communities stood out by tripling sales in
comparison to the rest of the country. In the end, Wal-Mart and Nexcare
decided that Claiborne County Hospital and a community hospital in Indiana
would both be given an ambulance. The New Tazewell Wal-Mart sold 37,000
boxes of bandages.
The hospital board expressed gratitude to local
residents and organizations that purchased bandages and particularly the
employees and management of the New Tazewell Wal-Mart for their efforts to
support hospital health care and emergency services.
The board also heard a presentation from Mark
Garrett, an investment banker and a partner with Wiley Brothers. Garret
presented an analysis that showed the relative costs of issuing bonds to
support the construction of a medical office building. While recognizing
that the hospital is financially sound, bonds are eventually guaranteed by
the county government unless the hospital chooses to issue a stand-alone
bond. He admitted that review of county finances may make the board
reluctant to ask the county to guarantee an additional debt load. He
estimated that the true cost of issuing the necessary bonds would be 5.9
percent to 5.95 percent.
The board also opened sealed proposals from four
local banks who responded to the hospital's advertised request for bids.
After analyzing the proposals, the board voted unanimously to accept the
proposal from First Century Bank and to authorize Tim Brown, hospital
administrator, to negotiate closing costs with the bank. First Century Bank
proposed a 5.65 percent fixed 15 or 20 year loan. Citizens Bank provided the
next closest bid but the potential costs of their five year variable rate
loan added long term interest rate risk that board members were reluctant to
shoulder.
Brown
also discussed a county physician's need analysis that showed that Claiborne
County needed to be more proactive in recruiting and supporting the local
medical community. The county population estimate now stands at just over
32,000 residents. Compared to many rural counties, Claiborne does not have
enough family practice/internal medicine physicians or many of the
specialists needed to support a population of this size. Brown asked the
board to consider possible actions to recruit additional physicians to the
area.
Among
other items of business, the board reviewed and approved the minutes of the
previous meeting and heard the financial report. The hospital was in the
black during the month of August although hospital admissions were lower
than expected. Board members also heard that the new CTI scanner (part of
the recently installed MRI scanner) should be online by the end of the
month. This last component was expected to be up and running in late August
but delivery problems slowed the process.
