Local News – Thursday, May 21st, 2020

The Salem Memorial District Hospital regular board meeting was held Tuesday evening in the Hospital Library as well as through an online conference using Zoom. Hospital Administrator Kasey Lucas stated the COVID-19 virus and “Stay at Home” order has had a major impact on the summary of operations for the month of April where the hospital had 92 inpatient admissions with 247 inpatient census days. There were 1,204 outpatient registrations, 1,150 cardiopulmonary procedures, 5,818 lab tests, 886 radiology procedures, 501 rehabilitation treatments, no surgeries and 160 home health visits. Lucas said the hospital was able to incorporate some telehealth visits during the month to help some, but the emergency room visits were down to 452 due to the fear of the coronavirus while the visits to SMDH Family Medicine were also impacted negatively. There were a total of 169 ambulance runs in March with 115 patients transported and 53 dry runs. The hospital showed a loss from operations of $683,817, but did receive a non-operational influx of money from the stimulus of $572,018. This led to expenses over revenues after taxes of $105,511. Hospital Administrator Lucas said expenses were up in March due to the construction work, increase in supplies for COVID as well their contractual obligations in nursing, coding and billing services. Lucas said that no one at the hospital has been furloughed yet and his plan is to not do that, but financial circumstances may force the hospital into making those decisions. He did say that the hospital qualified for the Payroll Protection Program which should help keep everyone at work for the next eight weeks. Lucas discussed the balance sheet which showed almost nine million dollars in cash and he said that was from the stimulus money, the $2.5 million dollar bond issue for the construction at the hospital and also the CMS accelerated program where the hospital was provided $3.25 million dollars that will be reduced by claims over the next six months and is being treated more like a loan. Obvious the cash flow statement showed a huge increase in cash from other sources of $5.8 million dollars. Administrator Lucas said he was encouraged by reductions in the amounts due from Medicaid and commercial insurers in April and hopes that continues, but warned the board that the accounts receivable for April was only about $1.75 million dollars which will be what the hospital will be receiving in June or July. Lucas said all the hospital auxiliary activities in April and May were cancelled, but the Shoe Roads Productions visit was rescheduled for July 9th at the hospital library. Hospital Chief Operating Officer Jason Edwards said the Hospital Foundation’s golf tournament is on for June 5th at the Salem Golf Club, and the Wings and Strings is still scheduled for September 12th. Edwards said the USDA Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program Grant is somewhat on hold with the schools being closed. Edwards said the foundation awarded scholarships to three Salem seniors: Bailee Pace, Madison Woolf and Anna McDaniel. He also reported the support group meetings have all been postponed until things get back to normal. Lucas reported on the patient Satisfaction Survey Results for the 1st quarter and the numbers were down as far as feedbacks were concerned, but the numbers came back excellent in both the Emergency Department and at SMDH Family Medicine. Lucas went on to report the hospital continues to due daily briefings on the COVID-19 situation and will continue with the No-Visitor Policy at this time. They will review that policy in late May or early June, but their major concern continues to be the Long-Term Care patients. The finance committee met on May 12th and put together a proposed budget for the next fiscal year. Board member Ray Bruno said with the current situation, there will not be across the board raises. Any raises given will be strategic raises in this budget. The budget suggests a rate increase of about 5% for all Acute Care, Ancillary and outpatient services, while Long-Term Care will go up $10 per day from $155 to $165. An increase of about 4% was added in the retirement plan and to supply costs while the finance committee expects the drug costs to increase 7.5%. The proposed budgeted net operating revenue is expected at just over $27.7 million dollars with estimated expenses also coming in close to $27.7 million dollars leaving a small gain from operation of $11,440. Property Tax revenues are expected near $500,000 which would leave the hospital with an excess of revenues over expenses of $511,400. The estimated payroll for the next fiscal year is $11,956,764. The hospital’s capital budget came in at $970,083 and that includes $589,468 in long-term leases that includes an ambulance, the MRI machine, expansion costs, a CT scan machine and more. The amount of purchases to be made was cut significantly but still came in at $380,615 with a couple of high dollar items driving up the cost. Remember, tax monies collected are only used for capital purchases and are not used toward the operation of the hospital. The board will review the proposed budget and may propose changes to it before they vote on it at the June meeting. The board approved a resolution in support of the Time Critical Diagnosis Designation at the hospital which they do every two years in support of the STEMI and Stroke programs. The board then went into closed session.

The Salem R-80 Board of Education regular monthly meeting for the month of May will be held tonight at 6:00 at the District Administrative Offices. After the consent agenda and communications, new business will be addressed including the approval of 2020-2021 meal prices, 2019-2020 budget revisions, and preliminary budget for 2020-2021. Surplus property will be approved by the board, plus they will consider a Baccalaureate Request and a support staff salary schedule change. The Board will set the reorganization meeting and regular June meeting dates before they hear resignations. The meeting will adjourn and moving into closed session to discuss personnel. The regular May meeting of the Salem R-80 Board of Education is open to the public.