Hospital board ready to elect four new officers

'"We've accomplished so much in the last six years, during the terms of Peg and Barb,'" Jim Ulrich, president and chief executive officer of Community Hospital, said Monday. Ulrich's list of accomplishments included the creation of Southview Plaza and the dialysis center on West C; facility improvements to McCook Clinic; and the construction of the rehabilitation center on the hospital campus; and so much more.

'"Both Peg and Barb have completed two terms -- six years -- on the board and in officer roles, Peg as treasurer and Barb as secretary,'" Ulrich said. Wiemers also served as the board's representative on the Community Hospital Health Foundation, he said.

Board members will elect a new treasurer and secretary at their Dec. 17 meeting. The positions of board chairman and vice chairman, now held by Patsy Houghton and Brian Esch, will also be up for election at that meeting.

Also at the Dec. 17 meeting, the board will appoint two members to represent it on the board of the Foundation. Current representatives are Wiemers and Marc Harpham.

Community Hospital's new MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine will be delivered Dec. 12.

Ulrich said doors will have to be removed to get the machine inside. It will be wheeled down the hospital's hallways and new walls built around it after it is installed. It will be tested in January, he said, and Community Hospital will be operating with its own MRI in February.

The hospital has leased an MRI for seven years, Ulrich said. The new installation coincides with the expiration of the lease agreement with Kings Medical of the MRI in use at the hospital.

Ulrich said an open house in late February will celebrate the hospital's new MRI and MRI suite.

The board's budget and finance committee reported that Community Hospital's excess of revenue over expenses for the period ending Sept. 30 -- $530,643 -- was $158,468 greater than expected. Ulrich said that expenses were close to $800,000 under budget for the same period, and net revenues were nearly $700,000 less than budgeted.

Ulrich explained that revenues were down because of the lack of orthopedic coverage in August and September, after the resignation of Dr. Dan Farrell. Ulrich added, however, that visiting orthopedic surgeons were very busy in October and November.

Ulrich said that September's healthy year-to-date '"bottom line'" is an indication that the facility is doing a nice job of operating efficiently.

Community Hospital's percentage of medical errors continues at an extremely low rate, Ulrich reported.

Ulrich said that, during July, August and September, only 22 out of 10,972 medications dispensed were dispensed in error, and the majority of those were '"Level 1'" errors (on a scale of increasing severity of 0-6), which means that the medication reached the patient but caused no harm.

Community Hospital's rate of healthcare-associated infections -- those acquired while hospitalized -- is also extremely low, especially when compared to the national average of 6-8 percent. In July/August, Community Hospital recorded one healthcare-associated infection, and in September, zero infections.

While both the hospital's medical error and healthcare-associated infection rates are extremely low, Ulrich said, the facility continues to work to make improvements.

Ulrich reported that Sharon Conroy R.N., Community Hospital's infection control/employee health coordinator, and Katie Graham, the hospital's patient safety specialist, reached about 600 students and athletes at McCook Public Schools with their presentations on MRSA -- the antibiotic-resistant '"super-bug'" '"Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureas.'"

Ulrich explained to board members that the newly-instituted '"Balanced Scorecard'" performance measurement system will let Community Hospital know how the facility is doing and where it wants and needs to go.

The scorecard is built upon four measurable '"seeds,'" Ulrich said -- People, Service, Quality and Finance -- and although Community Hospital's scores during the first quarter of 2008-2009 '"are not at our goal level yet, we're getting closer,'" Ulrich said.

'"The beauty of the Balanced Scorecard is,'" Ulrich said, '"that it ties in with Community Hospital's strategic plan for organizational improvement.'"

Ulrich said that more information will be released in a month or so regarding the hospital's recruitment of a full-time orthopedic surgeon and a second full-time surgeon.

Recruitment efforts continue at McCook Clinic, he said, for family practice physicians who would join the newest doctor who starts in July.

In other action:

* Leanne Miller was introduced as Community Hospital's new director of human resources.

* The final accounting of '"An Evening for Hospice'" indicates that the event raised $31,500.

* Ulrich said the hospital continues to explore the feasibility of creating a '"hospice house'" in McCook.

* Board members, employees and personnel were reminded that the hospital's '"Confectioner's Delight'" day-long snack extravaganza will be Wednesday, Dec. 17; and the hospital's Christmas party will be Saturday, Dec. 20.

* Discussion of the Mid-Plains Community College Area's '"Investing in the Future'" capital campaign was tabled due to time restraints of the board meeting.