Local News – Friday, November 20th, 2020
The Salem Memorial District Hospital regular board meeting was held Tuesday evening in the Hospital Library. In the summary of operations for the month of October, the hospital had 106 inpatient admissions with 330 inpatient census days. Patients per day in Acute Care came in at 10.6 in October. The hospital showed a loss from operations of $479,327 and expenses over revenues after taxes of $477,722. Cash decreased for the month by $698,139. The days in net account receivables dropped to 100 days, down from 108 in September. During the month, there were 680 emergency room visits to go with 194 ambulance runs with 124 patients being transported, 25 surgery cases, 1,852 outpatient registrations, 274 home health visits, 7,033 lab tests, 1,083 radiological procedures including 824 rehab treatments. Chief of Nursing Debbie Hines gave the Acute Care Staffing by Patient Acuity report that showed the average acuity at 24 patients per day. She also stated that on November 2nd through the 4th, the hospital received a follow-up visit by the state from their visit in September. The hospital has not received a formal letter yet but Hines expects to receive no deficiencies. Chief Operating Officer Jason Edwards reported that due to COVID-19, all the fundraisers for 2021 at this time have been postponed until further notice. He went on to say the hospital has received the TytoCare-school focused telemedicine product and the next step is to get the product to the providers and get it tested. Hospital Administrator Kasey Lucas gave the Medical Staff’s report that included their request to the board to provide CRNA privileges for Karen Zang, CRNA and Jeffrey Colench, CRNA; as well as courtesy staff privileges to Johnathan Beers, DO and Thomas Byrne, MD. The board approved the Medical Staff’s request. Lucas gave the COVID-19 update and said the hospital has purchased a number of pieces of new disinfecting equipment including electrostatic sprayers, backpack sprayers and air purifiers for the sprayer. He also said the hospital is creating a new drive-up testing site that should be available possibly by the end of this week that will allow employees and patients to stay out of the weather. Lucas reported on the hospital expansion and said Canon has completed the MRI installation. He said practice scans will be starting soon. The new drywall outside the Outpatient Registration is almost finished and the HVAC is being installed. Lucas said Phase 3 of the sewer project is nearly complete and Phase 4 in the Administration Hallway is underway. Lucas stated an old Intercounty transformer is going to be moved from its current location to behind Physicians Office Building 3 near the generator. This will be a change order and will cost the hospital extra. The board approved the purchase of a non-magnetic MRI Stretcher for radiology from Merry X-Ray Corp for $3,924. They also set the dates for the election filing for District #2 for the seat currently held by Mike Swyers. Filing will begin on December 15th at 8:00 in the morning and last until January 19th at 4:00 in the afternoon. The December board meeting will be held on December 15th at noon by Zoom in the hospital library and the joint Board of Directors and Medical Staff dinner this year has been cancelled. The board then went into closed session.
The 2020 Honoring our Heroes Marathon will be held this Saturday with the marathon and marathon relay will begin at 7:00 in the morning at the Dent County Commons while the half marathon will begin at Lake Spring at 8:00 in the morning. The route those runners will be going will mostly be on Highway 72 to Lions Club Drive and then finish in the Lions Club Park. The 10k and 5k runs will be mostly at the Rolla Lions Club Park with the 10k diverting to the Veteran’s Park in Rolla before coming back to the Lions Club Park, and they will start at 8:00 in the morning. Get out, cheer on and support these runners who are helping to raise funds for veteran’s organizations, but please practice social distancing. Volunteers can still sign up to help. For more information or to sign up, go to https://www.heroesmarathon.com.