When the Eureka Springs Hospital Commission met on Oct. 18, commissioners discussed improvements in physical infrastructure, staffing, and finances.
Structural improvements include completion of a new roof on the Brown House, a planned upgrade in the ER floor, and a new four-bed patient room. The radiology department just installed a diagnostic monitor being used by physicians to read radiology films, an improvement over seeing them by television monitor only.
Cardiology will soon be performing outpatient echocardiograms and carotid artery imaging. The laboratory is continuing to perform in-house Covid testing as well as sending other tests to an outside lab. The ER is seeing record breaking numbers of cases, and CEO Angie Shaw said that on looking back, she believes that the ER in September saw the highest number of arrivals in the past five years.
New ER Director Joy Kennedy started Oct. 4 and is reviewing policies and procedures as well as going over stroke and trauma programs. She has initiated instruction and education to staff on code stroke policies.
Chair Ty Burden said that Julie King will be a new family nurse practitioner. “I have met with her in person as well as reviewed her records and she seems to be very excellent and will add greatly to a community that is in very high need for primary care right now,” he said. Also, Dr. Catherine Barton will be a new Emergency Room physician and an off-site consulting radiologist, Dr. Dilan Samarawickrama, has also joined the team.
Billing staff is being sought to be able to bring that back in-house, and a new medical coding position is being
advertised. Nursing staff remains short, and that advertising is ongoing. The swing-bed case manager position remains open, but dietary service is now full. Leva Murphy has resigned from the marketing committee and commissioner April Griffith has taken over that role.
Regarding the commission’s finances, treasurer Kent Turner reported no change in the $17,019 checking account from August 31 to Sept. 30. The money market account stands at $1,448,328.81 and the CD account remains at $435,780.98.
CFO Bill Couch said that while expenditures exceeded receipts, much of that is due to the timing of checks clearing the bank. An accounts payable clerk is transitioning in, and adjustment to a new computer system affected expenditures by dropping months of fees all at once, making September a catchup month in payments.
Professional charges are averaging $40,000 a day, but collection lags by 79 days, despite the industry standard for Arkansas being 60 days.
Couch said that he and Shaw have been working on ways to improve that, and bringing billing and coding back in-house are expected to lead to considerable cost savings.
COVID-19 testing is available Monday – Friday from 8-4. The vaccine clinic continues Fridays from 10-1, offering both initial vaccinations as well as booster shots (Pfizer.) Since Oct. 1, 159 tests were completed, with 17 positives. Eight of those 17 positives were confirmed on Oct. 18 alone. This follows a previous “lull” when just a positive every other day or so was being recorded.
Burden said in closing, “First of all I’d just like to thank everybody for doing such good work at the hospital and even though we hit a little bit of a bump in the road with the financial numbers this month, the numbers overall are looking very good.
“The commission is planning a workshop, hopefully next month possibly Nov. 6. This workshop will be a little more interesting than some in that we’re going to be discussing infrastructure and a plan for a new building versus possibly a new hospital, so that’s very exciting. Of course, we would love to have some community input on what the community would really like to see as far as the direction that the hospital goes in.”