Local News – Thursday, April 18th, 2019
The Salem Memorial District Hospital regular board meeting was held Tuesday evening in the Hospital Library. SMDH Attorney Mark Weaver administered the oath of office to board members Mike Swyers of District 2 and A.J. Seay from District 6. The board heard a presentation by Gina Daniels, the Director of Rehabilitation who gave an overview of the Physical and Occupational Therapy Departments. Monica Stogsdil gave the summary of operations for the month of March where the hospital had 117 inpatient admissions with 356 inpatient census days. During the month, there were 809 emergency room visits to go with 212 ambulance runs, 30 surgery cases, 1,750 outpatient registrations, 356 home health visits, 8,943 lab tests, 1,268 radiological procedures and 753 rehab treatments. The hospital showed a gain from operations of $126,043 and revenues over expenses after taxes of $151,338. Chief of Nursing Debbie Hines gave an Emergency Department Transportation Performance Report where the hospital is ranked on five areas. The next Hospital Auxiliary meeting will be held Tuesday, May 7th at noon at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory. The Auxiliary will have a “Scrubs and Beyond” event on April 17th, a BBQ during Hospital week and Shoe Road Productions will be in Salem on September 10th. Hospital COO Chris Strickland reported the Hospital Foundation Form 1023 has been sent to the IRS seeking tax exempt status and scholarship recipients have been selected. A $300,000 NAP grant has been submitted and a recycling grant has been implemented. The Foundation recently received $2,923 from the Coover Foundation to go towards patient accounts to pay for mammograms. The Golf Tournament is scheduled for June 7th and the wing-off fundraiser will be held August 3rd at the Commons. The next Health Fair will be held May 15th and 16th at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory from 6:00 until 9:00 in the morning. Lucas gave the Patient Satisfaction Survey results for the Emergency Department and Family Medicine. There were 123 total surveys returned for the ED department and 241 returned for the Family Medicine, both departments received very high scores in each category. The board elected officers for the next year as Sue Terry remained Chairman, Dennis Fiebelman was named as the Vice-Chairman and Judy Thompson as the Secretary. The board approved the donation of two refrigerators to a local charity before going into closed session.
The Salem Police Department has released the following reports for April 8th and 9th. Monday afternoon, the 8th, at approximately 3:00, an officer located a 20-year-old male of St. Louis near the 500 block of East Center who had an active arrest warrant from Dent County. The suspect was taken into custody on the warrant and incarcerated pending a court appearance. Then on Tuesday afternoon, the 9th, at approximately 5:07, an officer was contacted at the Salem Police Department in reference to damage to private property. The investigation of the report revealed a person or person unknown broke the door glass valued at $300.00 on a truck parked near the 100 block of North Rhodes. The report is under investigation. That same night at about 10:36, a vehicle was stopped for a traffic violation. The investigation of the stop led to the arrest of a 34-year-old male of Salem for driving while being intoxicated. The suspect was incarcerated pending the application for a warrant. Please contact the Salem Police Department at 573-729-4242 if you have any information regarding any ongoing investigation.
A 48-year old woman from Edgar Springs suffered minor injuries in an accident that occurred Monday evening, April 15th at 9:50. According to the report released from the highway patrol, Dawn Case was traveling northbound on Highway 63 about four miles south of Edgar Springs, driving a 2008 Chrysler Town and Country, when she struck a deer in the roadway. Case was transported by a private vehicle to Phelps Health for treatment of what was described as minor injuries. The Chrysler sustained moderate damage and was removed from the scene by Lucas Towing.