Local News – Friday, February 23rd, 2024

Today is KSMO’s Annual FFA Day at the KSMO Studios where former FFA Advisor Bob Parsons will be interviewing current Salem FFA students from each hour live on KSMO Radio (AM 1340 and 95.7 FM) and those interviews will be streamed live on KSMO Media (ksmoradio.com, KSMO Stream Facebook Page and KSMO YouTube.) The students will be answering questions on their experience with FFA including their SAE Projects, awards, projects, record books, future plans, what got them interested in FFA and more. Interviews normally begin between 8:20 and 8:30 in the morning and will be held throughout the day coming to an end around 3:00. If you can’t listen or watch live, the interviews will be able to be played back later on Facebook and YouTube.

The Salem Memorial Hospital regular board meeting was held Tuesday evening in the hospital library. The board heard a draft audit report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023 from Jean Nyberg from FORVIS CPA and Advisors. Nyberg said an unmodified accountant’s opinion was given which indicates it was a clean audit. She noted a decrease in cash of $3 million over the year and with the accounts payable increase she was concerned the hospital won’t be able to sustain for 12 months should the hospital continue to sustain monthly operating losses and have negative operating cash flows. The bond that was issued for capital projects has received a second year of being out of compliance due to ongoing losses. The bank could call the debt if this continues and those capital projects are now being shown as a short-term debt obligation rather than long-term. The hospital had a decrease in net position of $2.3 million compared to $1.6 million in the previous audit. The opinion letter pointed out the hospital is evaluating ways to reduce expenses and increase volumes that they feel will provide sufficient cash to meet its requirements over the next year, but there are no assurances that the entity will be successful. Again, this is a draft of the eventual audit report. In the Administrator’s Report, Interim CEO Jason Edwards reported CLIA re-inspection completed in the lab which showed full compliance. Inspectors praised the lab team and processes and stated they have no issues with receiving lab services at SMH. Edwards reported the TORCH funds have been received and a Population Health Member will be hired to develop and implement a community-level population health strategy within the hospital and with local partners. The 340b Drug Optimization will begin this month. In the Delta Region grant, a work plan has been approved for the Revenue Integrity Assistance charge-master to pull data and make assessments. In the summary of operations for January, CFO Doug Hoban reported the hospital had a loss from operations of $299,617 with an excess of revenues over expenses of $19,591, but a positive cash flow of $125,000 with days cash on hand at 26. Hospital admissions in January were 79 which included ten Swingbed and 38 observation admissions with a total of 255 patient census days. In January, there were 1,367 Outpatient Registrations, 6,316 Lab Tests, 1,111 Radiology Procedures, 1,473 Cardiopulmonary Procedures, 667 Rehabilitation Treatments and 25 Surgical Procedures. There were 595 Emergency Room visits with 59 patients being admitted. A total of 230 ambulance runs were made with 174 patients being transported. The clinic showed a net loss of $26,116 for the month. The 340B plan showed expenses over revenues for the month of $6,236 due to $42,000 in obsolete inventory that hadn’t been audited for several years. CNO Ashley Owens said there is a need for five full time night time nurses. Edwards reported on the State and Match Funding and the hospital received approval for their first request of $428,214, and are they expected to request additional funds by the end of May. The plans for the Delta Region grant to assist with Strategic Planning has been put on hold. Board member Zach Moser stated the importance of a strategic plan and wanted to either conduct the planning session internally or find someone to help lead the department leaders, physicians, administration and board members as soon as possible. The board is expected to discuss the Medical Staff Bylaws at their next meeting. The board then went into closed session.

The Dent County Commission met Thursday morning at the Dent County Courthouse. Susan Jordan was in to share her feelings and concerns about the possible blocking of the river access at Tan Vat that has been proposed by the Park Service. District 1 Commissioner Wes Mobray said they are in conversation with the Park Service and in fact, he was to call William Terry Thursday morning, but was unable to due to the phone outages. Mobray said that the stream bed is actually privately owned by a private party and that Superintendent Lott has said he has been in contact with the owner and they have no objection to the installation of the boulders. Mobray said he is going to find out who the owner is and will contact them to discuss the situation. Lancer Blair was also in attendance and asked if MoDOT is still planning to use Route K as the detour when the Standing Rock Bridge is replaced. Presiding Commissioner Gary Larson said that it won’t be used as a detour according to State Representative Ron Copeland. In the road report, Commissioner Mobray said that grading would be done on Dent County Roads 4210, 5515, 6215, 6480, and 6485, while rock would be added and grading would be done on county roads 4215 and 6215. District 2 Commissioner Gary Polk reported that grading would be done on Dent County Roads 2340, 4283, 4285, and 4287. He went on to say that brush would be cut on county roads 3330 and 3340, plus rock would be added to county roads 2330 and 2340. Commissioner Larson reported that he had an e-mail from Jeff Vanderott with Three Rivers Engineering noting that the county failed to sign the last page of the paperwork sent to him so that still needs to be done. Larson also reported Wednesday he met with Alexander Construction on the Christmas Lights issue at the courthouse and that they may need to replace a controller, but it is under warranty so there will be no cost to the county. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley reviewed all the deadlines prior to the April Municipal Election, plus reported that filings for the county offices for the August 6th election begin next Tuesday, February 27th. She also said Wednesday she attended a MAC Board meeting where they were updated on legislative issues, plus she had the opportunity to visit with a number of Missouri state representatives and senators. The next meeting of the commission will be Monday morning at 9:00 and the meeting will be open to the public.