Hospital board reviews audit results

Thursday, November 30, 2006

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada Regional Medical Center Board of Directors reviewed the results of a routine annual audit Tuesday night for their regular monthly meeting.

BK&D representative Tim Wolters told the board the audit revealed that the hospital had performed well the past year, keeping reserves healthy while keeping prices down. Wolters said the hospital's charges were 40 percent below national averages. One reason Wolters cited was the hospital's continuing with an obstetrics department.

"Many hospitals of your size no longer do obstetrics," Wolter said.

Bond refunding was once again on the agenda for the board. After discussing the issue the board decided to hear presentations from two local financial agencies, Edward Jones and A.G. Edwards at a special board meeting, Dec. 5, at 5:30 p.m.

Several members of the board asked CFO, Cindy Buck, to prepare a memorandum explaining bond refunding before the special meeting -- "Sort of like Bond Refunding 101," as one board member put it.

NRMC CEO Judy Feuquay began her report to the board with good news -- the hospital's OB department had delivered three sets of twins within three days. All three sets of twins had one boy and one girl. In October, there were 31 deliveries -- one for each day of the month.

Feuquay reported the conversion to a self-funded health insurance plan was well underway. She said the goal of the project was "to provide comprehensive health coverage for NRMC employees at a reasonable cost to the employee while maintaining fiscal responsibility."

Feuquay said new board officers would receive training the first week of December in Florida to become familiar with their new posts. She also thanked outgoing member Janet Wray and outgoing board president Norm Tuomi for their service the past six years.

Feuquay gave the board an update on capital equipment acquisitions noting that the hospital had new copiers stationed throughout the hospital to reduce the number of printers being used since copies were less expensive than printer output.

She told the board to brace themselves for the cost of a chiller for the North Tower, expected to cost $500,000. She noted the cost was high but that it was an important piece of equipment.

Feuquay announce the dates for the community clinics for flu vaccine shots. The clinics will be held Friday, Dec. 1, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Tuesday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cost is $20 for the shots.

Feuquay said the physician dictation system was usable but there were some issues with remote dictation over the phone lines that needed to be worked out. Doctors have to punch in numbers to end the session or the system keeps on transcribing empty airtime. Dr. William Turner said the system needed to be easier to use. Feuquay said that when the problem is resolved doctors can end a session by simply hanging up.

The update to the IT system is underway with specifics from the site visit of the consultant forming the basis for the request for proposals for the new system. After the draft of the RFP was reviewed by the steering team and modifications made to it the final version was sent to six IT vendors with responses expected by Dec. 15.

The board took action to remove outgoing board members signatures from the hospital's bank accounts and add new officers signatures to it, to be effective Jan. 1, 2007. The board also authorized the creation of new bank accounts necessary for the self-funded insurance program.

Janet Wray presented the Community Networking committee report which she summarized as "You be nice to people and people are nice to you."

Looking at Turner, Wray said "You have to be nice and smile, that means you, too." Turner laughed and joked he'd try not to kick his patients when he saw them.

In other business, the board:

* Approved continuation of a service agreement with Dr. Crim for reading EKGs.

* Approved Workers' Com-pensation insurance renewal.

* Approved a service agreement for the Beckman Coulter hematology analyzer in the lab.

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