Hospital board renews contracts, affiliations

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada Regional Medical Center Board of Directors took little action during its Tuesday meeting. Just enough members attended to comprise a quorum, but there weren't many things that called for a vote.

The board met in the Mezzanine Conference Room on the second floor of the hospital for its regular meeting.

The board did approve some items previously reviewed. Approval was given to renew the hospital's affiliation agreement with Legal Aid of Western Missouri for Medicaid appeals and denials. The cost of the renewal reflected an increase of $5,607.74 over the budgeted amount.

The board also approved renewing software that is compatible with the new Cerner system being implemented. The system would bring the human resources department and payroll in line with Cerner's software.

The board approved a renewal to the Missouri Department of Social Services to continue funding Michelle Long, the hospital's caseworker. The hospital pays half of Long's state salary and benefits and the board approved the budgeted amount of $24,400.

Other new contracts and renewals were approved also. The board approved $99,780 to provide psychiatric coverage in coordination with the on call schedule in the behavioral health unit. A new contract for service maintenance for diagnostic imaging technology was approved at the price of $138,900. A nine- month warranty has already been paid and the budgeted amount of $8,681 will be applied to the final three months.

A new, one-year contract was approved for Mid-America Accounts. A credit bureau that is contracted for debt collections. And a one year contract for $62,500 was approved for Americollect to act as professional debt collections for self pay receivables associated with Cerner.

The board of directors also heard and approved reports from department heads. The group discussed the upcoming Cerner software kickoff in July. A trade journal article examining whether health care workers were more prone to diagnosis and illness as was discussed as was the failure of Medicaid reform.

Chief Executive Officer Judy Feuquay delivered a report touching on several topics ranging from the annual golf tournament to the different training opportunities coming up. The board was brought up to speed on the Cerner project and told that the city would begin fiber line installation before the month was over. The meeting was adjourned after a little more than an hour and the board voted to go into closed session.