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Setback in hospital finances for October, board votes to
make campus tobacco free
Published:
Claiborne Progress
Wednesday,
December 2, 2009
by Ashley Collingsworth Staff Writer
The Claiborne County Hospital Board of Directors met in regular session on
Tuesday, November 24.
The majority of the meeting was spent discussing the hospital’s finances.
There was a setback in October due to higher than anticipated charity and
uncompensated care. The overall organizational loss for the month was
$180,682.
Overall, expenses are at or below the previous year’s levels. Both the
hospital and the home health department are continuing to focus on the
collection of receivables.
Another area of discussion was debt refinancing.
CFO Tracee McFarland presented information concerning the possible
refinancing of bonds, which would allow the hospital to receive a better
interest rate and avoid the large balloon payments, which the current bond
financing requires.
There was a motion and second to authorize the hospital to pursue
refinancing for the bonds in question; the motion passed with all board
members present in favor.
Other requests approved by the board included a capital request to purchase
a new clock system for the hospital and the approval of a Christmas gift to
all hospital employees.
The board revisited the smoke-free policy, which was discussed at last
month’s meeting.
Administrator Tim Brown had distributed a draft policy before the meeting
for the board members to review along with a communications plan and release
forms.
Brown also found out through a discussion with County Attorney Jimmy Estep
that state law could exempt nursing homes from any hospital policy
concerning a smoke-free environment.
The employee parking lots could be exempted from the smoke-free area, which
would allow employees to go to their cars during their scheduled breaks.
Other areas of discussion involved what the hospital would do for their
employees if this policy were adopted and whether to designate the hospital
campus as “smoke free” or “tobacco free.”
After lengthy debate of the proposed policy a motion and second was made to
adopt a tobacco-free campus with the exclusion of the specified employee
parking lots and the nursing home for patients only. The motion passed with
the approval of all present board members.
It was also approved that the hospital would provide and pay for one course
of smoking cessation treatment through the hospital pharmacy, which is
commenced by any employee within six months from the date of adoption of the
policy. The motion passed with a vote of 5 to 1.
Administrator Brown gave the management report and the monthly report on the Baker
Cancer
Center was presented to
the board.
The next Claiborne County Hospital Board will be held on December 22 at 6
p.m. in the hospital conference room.
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