Local News – Thursday, March 21st, 2019

The Salem Memorial District Hospital regular board meeting was held Tuesday evening in the Hospital Library. Hospital Administrator Kasey Lucas introduced Lisa Dulaney, Director of Social Services. She explained about her responsibilities with acute care discharge planning, swing bed, coordinating long term care, and communications with Dialysis Department, ER, and Family Medicine. She said that communication and coordination are her primary responsibilities and she finds her role at SMDH very rewarding. Dulaney’s presentation was followed by the Dialysis Department. Lucas introduced current Director Michelle McWhorter and Brittany Shephard, who will become the director April 1st, when McWhorter retires. They presented power points while explaining the dialysis lab and water filtration system for the department. They noted that they currently have 12 patients and are currently at their maximum number of patients they can serve, plus they have potential patients on the waiting list. McWhorter pointed out that CMS Medicare regulations and standards dictate the amount of time to complete dialysis preparation, the process itself, and prep for the next patient and that’s what keeps the numbers at this level. In the summary of operations for the month of February, the hospital had 101 inpatient admissions with 317 inpatient census days. Patients per day in Acute Care came in at 11.3 in February. The hospital showed a gain from operations of $46,755 and revenues over expenses after taxes of $65,756. Cash decreased for the month by $359,835, which was mostly due to $700,000 in Medicare payments in February. The days in net account receivables dropped from 73 to 66 days last month. During the month, there were 684 emergency room visits to go with 204 ambulance runs with 164 patients being transported, 29 surgery cases, 1,916 outpatient registrations, 303 home health visits, 9,034 lab tests, 1,225 radiological procedures and 545 rehab treatments. Debbie Hines gave the Chief of Nursing report that concentrated on the Community Health Needs Assessment update. She noted that to date there have been 143 online survey responses via Survey Monkey and that paper surveys that were distributed to various locations will be picked up March 31st. Hines went on to say the data will be compiled to analyze and prioritize the health issues identified by the community. She gave an update on the flu season and Salem had a much lower concentration in January versus last year, but the February total of 31 actually exceeded also up from 16 in 2018. Hospital Administrator Kasey Lucas reported that the Hospital Auxiliary met on March 5th with nine members present. “Scrubs and Beyond” will be held on April 17th and Shoe Roads Productions will be on September 10th with both fundraisers being held at the hospital library. COO Chris Strickland said the Hospital Foundation will be meeting April 1st to ratify the updated bylaws and that they are still waiting on the IRS Tax Exempt Status update. He said the bands are booked for the “Foundation Benefit Concert and Wing Off” that will be held August 3rd at the Commons. Strickland said the hospital was represented at Montauk State Park on “Opening Day of Trout Season”, at Healthy Dent County’s “Girls Night Out” on March 14th and had two ambulances at the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood. Strickland updated the Board on the new Ultrasound Equipment in Radiology and showed power points contrasting the new machine with the existing machine, which has been upgraded and will be used for overflow and backup. Lucas gave the Chief of Staff Report on the Staff meeting March 18th where the summary of operations, Chief of Nursing, Pharmacy and Therapeutics reports were reviewed and discussed. Courtesy Staff privileges were approved and recommended for the Franklin Mayhue, MD and Elizabeth Lambird, DO for the Emergency Department, as well as Oagouke Akinwande, MD, Patrick Carera, Do, and James Nepute, MD for Teleradiology. The Board approved Courtesy Staff privileges for these physicians. Lucas also said the Fiscal Year 2020 committee would be meeting in April. CNO Hines reviewed the CMS critical access hospital survey conducted January 9th. She said six acute care deficiencies, one Emergency Room, and 5 plant operations deficiencies were identified. She said that several plans of corrections, as well as new policies were developed to monitor progress and ensure compliance. Hines said that the plan was accepted and the letter of approval from CMS actually arrived Tuesday and SMDH is now in compliance with CMS. She noted that she was pleased with the survey results since the deficiencies were minor and that the last review of SMDH by CMS was 5 year ago. Lucas said he would get information to the Board members about the MHA Leadership Forum coming up May 16-17. The board then went into closed session.

The Salem Airport Board will be meeting this evening at 6:30 in the City Hall Council Chambers at 202 North Washington. After the call to order, the board will be developing written policies for hanger rental. Also on the agenda will be the discussion of hanger usage, fuel issues and review the waiting list for hangers before adjourning. The meeting is open to the public.