Local News – Wednesday, April 20th, 2022
A public hearing and meeting of the City of Salem Planning and Zoning Board of Adjustments will take place this evening at 6:30 in City Hall Council Chambers at 202 North Washington. During the public hearing, after the call to order the board will recognize anyone from the floor who wishes to speak before closing the hearing and opening the public meeting. After calling the public meeting to order and roll call is taken, they will discuss the request for a variance from the height restriction for the installation of a cell tower on property located at 1702 Doss Road. The meeting will then be adjourned.
Parks and Recreation Board President Greg Sanders has called for a meeting of the Board for this afternoon at 4:45 at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory. Following the call to order will be the Roll Call and a Closed Session of the Board.
The Salem Memorial District Hospital regular board meeting was held Tuesday evening in the Hospital Library. SMDH Attorney Mark Weaver gave the oath of office for newly elected District 3 board member Wanda Tatom. In the summary of operations for the month of March, the hospital had 109 inpatient admissions with 382 inpatient census days. There were 175 days of swingbed which is up from 74 for March 2021. The swingbed is a good revenue source for the hospital as it brings in $1,600 per day with the average length of stay at 9.72 days. The hospital showed a loss from operations of $511,419. During the month, there were 644 emergency room visits with 65 admissions, plus there were 200 ambulance runs where 135 patients were transported. In March, there were 28 surgery cases, 1,278 outpatient registrations, 6,172 lab tests, 1,116 radiological procedures, 684 rehab treatments and 254 home health visits with 20 home health admissions. The days cash on hand was at 64 with $5.7 million total cash. Chief Nursing Officer Ashley Sullins gave a staffing update that showed a vacancy of five nurses. She asked the board to reconsider a portion of the employee manual that addresses hair color. Recently this has become an issue when trying to hire qualified employees. The board agreed to take the reference to hair color out of the employee manual. Sullins reported that the Community Health Needs Assessment has been complete with surveys ending on April 15th. The committee will meet to further discuss the results on April 21. Current cases of COVID are at zero with the community exposure rate being low. The Hospital Foundation Chairman, Chris Holiday has resigned and the next board meeting is scheduled for May 4th. The annual Golf Tournament fundraiser will be held on June 3rd. Interim CEO Bill May discussed the Marketing/Community Perception efforts and announced that Karen Brown will become the new Community Ambassador, as part of the Delta Region grant. Michelle Bland, FNP will begin seeing patients on May 2nd and Dr. Tiffany Bland is working with the Dent County Health Center with the Show Me Healthy Women program. In the lab update, CLIA will be at the hospital to review the blood draws that began again. There is still a need for more employees in the lab, but there are 3 traveling techs to help cover. Maintenance Director Todd Workman talked about the closure of lagoon and the estimated costs to create a closure plan of $4,600 came from Darren-Krehbiel Consultants. Costs to close the lagoon will not be known until this plan is accepted by DNR. The cost for the hospital to hook up to the city system would be $15,000 and the board felt that they were told by the city administrator that there would not be a cost to hook up to the system. Attorney Weaver will talk to the City Administrator. Pharmacy Director David Kerr discussed a vaccine for children program for the clinic as well as an employee prescription program that would use the 340B pricing structure. This could save the hospital 50% of the $60,000 current monthly prescription costs. A plan will be presented at a future board meeting. Radiology Director Bobby Sullins presented the need for a new CT Scan at a cost of $14,702 per month. The current CT scan is an older unit and costs $16,000 per month. There will be additional costs to remove the current machine. This was approved to be purchased. Workman discussed the replacement of the electric transformer. This unit is 53 years old and cannot be assessed by Intercounty Electric, plus has lines running over the roof of the hospital. Funds for the replacement will come from the county’s ARPA funds with some lines being buried and others relocated. Former employee Mike Murr requested a letter of recommendation from the hospital and was told that this is not done. He talked on behalf of the 40 other employees that were let go and felt that their service to the hospital should qualify them for this type of letter. Attorney Weaver will look into the matter. Outgoing board member Dennis Fiebelman thanked the current board and hospital staff for allowing him to serve 34 years on the board. The board then went into closed session.
Dr. Kyle Ouzts of the Dent County Veterinary Clinic in Salem will be hosting a live fifteen-minute radio call in show on KSMO Radio 1340 AM and 95.7 FM TODAY at 1:00 this afternoon. Dr. Ouzts talks about pet safety, nutrition and different things that effect your furry friends. So get your questions ready and call Dr. Ouzts starting at 1:00 on KSMO at 573-729-6659.