News – Thursday, March 27th 2025

The Missouri Department of Agriculture has lifted the suspension of poultry and waterfowl auctions, shows and swap meets in Missouri effective March 24, 2025. The Department suspended waterfowl activity in January in counties impacted by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to help prevent the spread of the virus. HPAI is known to be deadly for domesticated poultry. Missouri State Veterinarian Steve Strubberg Avian Influenza continues to be a risk, especially with spring wild bird migration across the Midwest. He strongly encourage producers to continue a high level of biosecurity protocols to help protect their flock. Specifically, keep your birds from commingling with wild waterfowl. Missouri saw a significant increase in confirmed avian influenza cases over the winter, especially in southwest Missouri. Since the outbreak began in 2022, there have been 60 confirmed cases in Missouri flocks. Poultry producers should prevent contact between their birds and wild birds and report sick birds or an unusual increase in death loss to their local veterinarian or the state veterinarian’s office at (573) 751-3377. For more information about avian influenza in Missouri, visit Agriculture.Mo.Gov/avian-influenza.

The Salem Memorial Hospital Board of Directors held their regular meeting Tuesday evening at 7:00 in the Doctor’s Library. After approving the meeting agenda and minutes, CEO Brooke Bollman provided her report, in which she highlighted the hospital’s financial progress. She  noted that this was the first time since 2019 that they were ahead financially, and would now be focusing their efforts on improving patient connections, as well as education and training for clinical staff. There will also be more focus placed on recruitment and retention by introducing referral bonuses for hard to recruit positions like nursing and radiology, employee service discounts, and retirement match programs. Financial performance for the month of February showed gross patient revenue at $5.2 million, with total operating revenue at $2.3 million. Management is addressing some accounting and accrual issues and expects to have these corrected by the end of March. The 340B revenue program generated $64,548 in profit for the month. The hospital is actively developing its emergency preparedness capabilities and working on becoming a training entity for emergency medical services, with plans to potentially start on an EMT-B program in June or July. They are also exploring county-wide emergency preparedness drills and expanding their emergency response capabilities. Additionally, they are working on a patient experience project to streamline registration processes and improve overall customer service. Quality and patient satisfaction are key focus areas. The hospital received a five-star rating on Medicare.gov for its long-term care facility, being the only five-star rated facility within 25 miles. They are tracking patient surveys and plan to highlight positive feedback through social media and internal communications. Before adjourning to executive session, the Board voted to move the April meeting from the 29th to the 22nd at 7:00 in the Doctor’s Library.