Hospital board evaluates ways to streamline care for injured workers

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada Regional Medical Center Board of Directors is evaluating a report by Dr. William Turner and Rick Buchsbaum on the effort to institute an industrial medicine program, Tri-County Industrial Medicine Program, at the hospital. Board members said they hope that such a unit would benefit everyone involved by saving money for companies, reducing the hassle for injured employees and providing extra income for the hospital and the community.

"We want to work within the system to keep costs down and keep patients in Nevada," Turner said. "We want to work with companies to save them money and provide a consistent high quality service to them."

The program, seen as a cooperative effort that would serve patients' needs more efficiently and directly, would be developed with local physicians and supplemented with hospital services. The proposal suggests developing protocols that minimize the use of medical resources and instead treat the injury with typically less expensive and less invasive methods.

One of the innovations suggested for the program is the way a patient accesses care. For example, after a patient who has suffered a joint injury or broken bone would be seen by the contracted doctor or in the emergency room he might be sent directly to an orthopedic surgeon without seeing a general practitioner first, streamlining the process.

The program is in the development stage and nothing has been finalized but several companies in the area have been contacted about becoming involved in the program.

Dr. Jerry Laster reminded the board that Judith Feuquay, the hospital's CEO, has completed her first year in Nevada and had praise for her handling of the hospital's finances. "Judy has been here a year," Laster said. "She and her management team have taken us from 55 Bond Days on Hand to 72. As someone who has been here, on the inside, I'm impressed that they managed to do it without cutting services and instead actually expanded them."

Feuquay introduced Chuck Edmonds to the board, who replaced outgoing president Phil Vinyard.

In her CEO's report, Feuquay noted that new ultrasound equipment is already installed and operating.

The installation of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging equipment is progressing well despite some difficulty in getting the equipment into the building due to its size.

Farrel Offret, director of plant operations and maintenance, informed the board of a persistent problem with the vinyl tile, which is loosening and bubbling up in various areas of the hospital and Moore-Few Care Center. Excessive moisture had been found on all floors of both the new and old sections of the hospital.

"They've tried several options to correct the problem," Offret said. "They've put different types of adhesives under the tile; they've pulled up the tile and re-laid it, and it hasn't helped."

Offret said that one solution might be to have an expert -- someone more knowledgeable than usually found in a retail outlet -- examine the problem areas to see if a solution can be found that is economically feasible.

"If we can get an expert to look at this we might be able to get a handle on what to do," Offret said. "If it cost $100,000 it might not be cost-effective but we should look at the option."

Feuquay reported that the NRMC Foundation had been very successful and had raised $71,499.36 in the first six months of the fiscal year. The foundation raised $18,047.50 from the 2004 annual appeal and $6,125 from sales of lights for the Hospice Tree of Memories. Aquila has donated 13 desk chairs to the hospital and the L.F. Richardson Foundation funded two birthing beds for the OB unit and a Dynamap Monitor for the Medical/Surgical unit.

In other business the board:

* Approved contract with Dr. Saad Al-Shathir for lease.

* Approved contract with Scott Compton for lease.

* Approved contract with Clinical Coding Specialists for ER coding.

* Approved giving management the authority to bid for audit services.

* Approved having board officers and top management sign bank account signature cards.

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