New outpatient clinic manager introduced
With the move and enlargement of the outpatient services, Community Hospital of McCook has added a new position to its staff -- outpatient clinic manager. Karen Kliment began working as the outpatient clinic manager at Community Hospital several months ago and was introduced to the hospital's board of directors at their regular meeting March 19.
Her duties will include overseeing outpatient services, which will be moving into the Medical Office Building, formerly home to the McCook Clinic. The Board of Directors approved the renovations and updates to the future Medical Specialist Center during the meeting. A native of Atkinson, Kliment has worked the past four years as the manager of a pediatric clinic in Fremont. She has a masters degree in health care administration and is a licensed nursing home administrator.
The future Medical Special Center will also include visiting specialists and central scheduling for outpatient services. In addition to the new outpatient center, Kliment will oversee the clinics in Trenton and Curtis. Hospital president Gary Bieganski said renovations in the former McCook Clinic building should begin within the month and the outpatient clinics should be moved into the new office space by early summer.
The board of directors also signed the final loan papers for the new Medical Office Building. The hospital obtained a $2.5 million loan from the USDA to help fund the project. The McCook Clinic celebrated its grand opening of its new 20,000-foot addition last week.
The board also approved a revised Community Hospital -- Nebraska Drug Free Workplace Policy, as well as a Fingernail Enhancement Policy. Bieganski said Community Hospital is in compliance with all Nebraska laws regarding drug testing and has always had the option of random drug testing, but has never acted upon that option. Beginning July 1, a third party will begin randomly drug-testing hospital employees.
Over the course of a year, 25 percent of hospital employees will be tested, he said. The hospital decided to resume drug testing because of the availability of a truly anonymous selection system, Bieganski said. As part of the hospital's personnel policy, all employees with direct patient contact now will be restricted to fingernails of no longer than 1/8 of an inch and no fake nails. Bieganski said this was to prevent the transmission of pathogens between employees and patients.
The board also received a report from the Policy, Personnel and Planning Committee, which noted that the hospital currently employs 221 people on a full- and part-time basis. Bieganski said the committee is looking at the hospital's competency process, recruitment, longevity and turnover. While longevity of employees is excellent Bieganski said, the time to fill open positions is growing longer. "While it previously took 20 to 40 days to fill a position, we're seeing 40 to 60 days now." Jessica Bortner, performance improvement coordinator, delivered the quarterly performance improvement report, which said the hospital should focus on more patient education for CHF patients and the need to be more aggressive in marketing the smoking cessation program. She also said pneumonia patients are getting well sooner and leaving the hospital sooner. Another part of the report were the results from the quarterly patient satisfaction survey. One hundred percent of the patients who responded said they would recommend Community Hospital, but some noted the need for more time between patients and nurses, doctors and physical therapists about treatment.
In other business, the board:
- Approved the reappointment of consulting medical staff privileges for David Halsted, M.D., urology, Hastings; Denes Korpas, M.D., cardiology, North Platte; and Sam Liu, M.D., radiology, North Platte;
- Approved the reappointment of allied health staff privileges for Timothy Arthur, CRNA, nurse anesthetist, Aurora;
- Approved the reappointment of courtesy medical staff privileges for Darrin Dallegge, DPM, podiatry, Sterling, Colo.;
- And approved the appointment of affiliate medical staff privileges for David Lindley, M.D., family practice, North Platte.