Local News – Thursday, March 18th, 2021

The Salem Memorial District Hospital regular board meeting was held Tuesday evening in the Hospital Library. The board was introduced to Tanya Akers, the new Executive Assistant that will replace Karen Brown who is retiring in June. In the summary of operations for the month of February, the hospital had 74 inpatient admissions with 169 inpatient census days. The average amount of patients per day in Acute Care was 6. The hospital showed a loss from operations of $534,914 and expenses over revenues after taxes of $439,672. During the month, there were 499 emergency room visits to go with 157 ambulance runs with 123 patients being transported, 16 surgery cases, 1,425 outpatient registrations, 273 home health visits, 5,300 lab tests, 1,037 radiological procedures including 464 rehab treatments. Chief of Nursing Debbie Hines gave the Acute Care Staffing by Patient Acuity report that showed the average acuity at 17 per day with an average of six patients per day. Chief Operating Officer Jason Edwards stated the Golf Tournament is scheduled for June 4th and sponsorships as well as team entries are being accepted. The Wings and Strings event is tentatively scheduled for September 11th at the Commons and the band “ChristiAna” has been scheduled for the event. He said the TytoCare-school focused telemedicine product has been evaluated and tested in house and the next step is to set up a pilot test with rural schools. Hospital Administrator Kasey Lucas gave the Chief of Staff report. The medical staff recommended and the board approved courtesy staff privileges for James Lamousin, MD for telepsych, and Syed A. Akbar, MD for teleradiology. Lucas gave the COVID-19 update and said the mass vaccination clinic that was recently held at the commons has vaccinated a total of 1,800 citizens with both shots. Lucas stated anyone qualifying in Phase 1B Tier 2 that would like a vaccine should call the Health Center to schedule an appointment for the  additional vaccine clinics are scheduled for today and March 25th and 26th. Lucas estimated another mass vaccination clinic will be held prior to May 1st that would vaccinate the remaining public. The hospital revised the visitor policy to allow one visitor with Emergency Room patients, and one visitor for long-term care patients. Lucas said the new generator has been installed and the new water heater has been delivered and will be installed soon. Lucas discussed with the board the Cerver Conversion as they had meetings with the focus groups for Paylocity and Microsoft Dynamics 365. At this time, the hospital will begin the data entry for the conversion in April and the system will go live with the first paychecks issued in July. The board's current "Conflict of Interest" policy will expire in 2022. Staff and Hospital Attorney Mark Weaver are working on a new policy with revised language. The finance committee recently met and approved the market assessment in preparation for the budget. The Administration will be meeting with Department Directors individually to discuss revenue and expenses before the next committee meeting that will be held on April 9th. The board approved the purchase of a new power supply for the servers for $3,900.00. This was a non-budgeted purchase. The board then went into closed session.

If you haven’t registered yet, this is a reminder that the Healthy Dent County Prevention Coalition is sponsoring a Child Sexual Abuse Prevention training for local adults on Tuesday, March 23rd from 9:30 to 11:30 in the morning at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory in Salem. The coalition is pleased to be able to bring this training to Salem as a response to the recent death of Josie Ann Abney. This training was requested by many citizens concerned about what they could have done to prevent her death. Those who attend will learn how to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child and sexual abuse. The Stewards of Children training is an evidence-based training and discussion that teaches adults to prevent, recognize, and react responsibly to child sexual abuse. It teaches practical actions adults can take to reduce instances of child sexual abuse in their organizations, families, and communities. The Stewards of Children training was developed by the national organization called Darkness to Light. Training is provided by authorized facilitators and has been found to change and strengthen adult protective behaviors of children and increase the reporting of previously unrecognized abuse at a higher rate than in other communities. The Salem training will be facilitated by Dr. Mary Beth Myers of Prevention Consultants of Missouri. There is no fee to attend the training, but participants must register to attend by this Friday, March 19th. Seating is very limited. To register, call Healthy Dent County at 729-8163 or e-mail sherry@salemcommunitycenter.org.