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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 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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