The Kiowa County Hospital District and County Board met in regular session on April 25, 2017 at 6:34 p.m. at the Bransgrove Building Meeting Room. 

District Board members present were: Robert Woods, Mary Eikner, Priscilla Waggoner and Cathryn Anderson. Absent: Sylvia Shields (called) 

County Board members present were: Lori Shalberg, Kim Harris, John Negley and Dennis Pearson. Absent: Craig Kerfoot (called). 

Others present: Shannon Dixon, Char Korrell, Mary Ellen Engelhardt, Gloria Trosper, Cindy McLoud, Joe Zinger and Kevin Siefkas. 

The meeting was called to order by Waggoner, Chairman of the Board. 

COUNTY VOTING MEMBERS: Shalberg, Harris and Pearson 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: A motion was made to approve the March 28 and April 18 minutes by Shalberg and Eikner seconded it. All aye. 

AGENDA: Add Other – Healthland and Radiology. A motion was made by Anderson to approve the Agenda as amended and it was seconded by Woods. All aye. 

COMMITTEE REPORTS 

FINANCE COMMITTEE: The March financials were reviewed. The AR is looking good. We are still waiting on Medicaid to get some issues with their new Portal fixed, so we can bill properly. We had several swingbeds and some inpatient days. We have 16 ECU residents. The check register was reviewed. 

PLANNING COMMITTEE: We have been talking about future plans in our strategy meetings. 

GRANT COMMITTEE: The first quarter DOLA report has been submitted. They will retain $15,000 until the final report has been filed. Are there any other items that we need to be looking for grants? A generator would be nice. If we had another generator or a larger one, then we could have everything on the generator. What about some alternative energy? Discussion followed. Siefkas will call to see if we can get a bid on changing our lights to LED. 

DEPARTMENT REPORTS: Joe Zinger, Physical Therapy Assistant, stated that PT is doing very well. They are staying busy. They are still working with the School to see if they can work out something with them like we do at Prairie Pines. They are doing some community visits with area Seniors. Tim Richardt would like to attend a dry needling certification class. The class is $1,250.00 or advanced integrated therapy education for $900.00. A motion was made by Shalberg to pay for the dry needling class and Eikner seconded it. All aye. 

CREDENTIALING 

Dr. Lori Thorndike will be working for us in May. She has been approved for 60 day temporary privileges by the Med Staff. Shalberg made a motion to approve 60 day privileges for Dr. Thorndike and Eikner seconded it. All aye. 

POLICIES & PROCEDURES 

We have policies for Physical Therapy, Emergency Room and HIM for review this month. No changes were made. A motion was made by Woods to approve policies presented and Pearson seconded it. All aye. 

OLD BUSINESS 

PROVIDER RECRUITMENT: Korrell talked to Arthur Marshall today and there are still no candidates. This search is good for one year. We have already paid most of their fee for this search. We will continue to pay $350 each month for advertising. 

Char, Wendy, Stephanie Green and Shannon met to discuss some ideas and thoughts about providers. Maybe add another mid-level and have the locums cover the ER, inpatient and swingbed. If we change the ER to a level 4, we have to have a physician on staff at all times. Maybe we could have a workshop to review ideas and see what we can do. Dr. Rob Schmidt from Centura also suggested some Telehealth that they are starting to do. 

NEW BUSINESS 

ECU & HOSPITAL REPORT: Our 340B audit went well. We need to update our policies and procedures and do some internal audits and an external audit once a year. They compared prescriptions to visits and to invoices. 

We passed our State Board of Pharmacy review. Dreama and Casey do a great job. 

Med Staff reviewed protocols for the CT. We are working on the policies and procedures. We will begin doing an antibiotic stewardship. 

The Clinic will begin doing the scheduling for the Dentist. We are currently involved with the MORE program which allows us to offer fluoride treatments and do well child exams. This will flow with the dental appointments. 

The Hospital and Clinic are part of the Healthcare Coalition for our county. They want to create a regional committee also. Public Health will be the agent to receive funds to be disbursed to participants in the coalition. This is for emergency preparedness planning. 

Korrell is working on the Hospital license renewal. Dietary has installed their new freezer and shelving. We have talked about the rocks in the parking lot and along the alley. 

These are causing some safety issues. We need to get a tractor to maintain the rocks or put some asphalt down. The Med Cart is ready to be used in the Hospital. We have started a drug interchange program. Meds on the formulary would outdate, with this program, the meds can be interchanged with similar meds unless the provider specifies. Dr. Knaus, Wendy & Renay will be working on standing orders. 

Dr. Feinsod is no longer our ECU Medical Director, but will continue to consult for us. Stephanie Green will do the 60 day summaries and the covering physicians will do the 90 day summaries. Dr. Feinsod will continue to do the Psych reviews and consult for us. He praises everyones work here. 

LAB: Trosper discussed the Tosoh machine that is now obsolete. We need to replace this and would like to get a machine that will do more testing in house. She has three bids. One from Fisher, Tosoh and Cardinal, she reviewed these with the Board. The one that she likes the best and offers more of a discount for supplies is the bid from Fisher. We can lease it for $1,800 per month or purchase outright for $66,000. With this machine, our supplies will be cut in half. Discussion followed. A motion was made by Eikner to either lease or purchase the ECI machine from Fisher and Anderson seconded it. Dixon and Trosper will do some research and bring back to May meeting which will be the better deal. All aye. 

OTHER 

RADIOLOGY: Engelhardt stated that there were a few things we needed for the CT room. We need some cabinets for storage and two of them need to lock. The cabinets cost $1,200 and to install them is $300. A motion was made by Shalberg to approve the purchase of the cabinets and the installation and Eikner seconded it. All aye. We also need seven outlets put in the CT and Ultrasound rooms. These will need to come down from the ceiling and will not be recessed due to the lead walls. We have talked to the Physicist and he has approved this. The original design did not include these outlets. We have a bid for $4,000 for the outlet work. A motion was made by Shalberg to accept the bid for $4,000 to install seven outlets and Pearson seconded it. All aye. 

HEALTHLAND: Meaningful Use Stage 3 will begin in 2018. There will need to be an update to our EMR software to include all the changes for MU3. If we do not meet MU3, then we would have to take a penalty. The cost for this update will be $65,000. We can make monthly payments or quarterly installments. A motion was made by Eikner to purchase the MU3 update and Woods seconded it. All aye. 

A resume for the CEO position was given to the Board for review. 

A motion was made by Anderson that we go into executive session to develop strategy for negotiations pursuant to and as permitted by CRS 24-6-402(4)(e) and Pearson seconded it. All aye. 

Executive session was convened at 8:34 p.m. 

The meeting was returned to regular session at 8:57 p.m. 

A motion was made by Eikner to sign a contract with Nside Consulting and Shalberg seconded the motion. All aye. 

A motion was made by Harris to reimburse Meghan Buck for CT training and Eikner seconded it. All aye. 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:59 p.m.