Hospital board approves policy changes

During the Tuesday evening meeting of the Hot Springs County Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees, changes to two policies were approved.

The first was the CPR policy, to change ownership to education rather than human resources. It’s also changed to reflect that only employees that work on the premises of the hospital or clinics have to take CPR training.

The second change came with the removal of policy for maintenance and retention of personnel files. The hospital is required to keep personnel files, but does not require a policy stating what all is in a given file.

In other action, the board approved implementation of the Community Health Needs Assessment. The assessment was approved in June, Miranda Nelson noted, and this action was just to start implementing the actions included in the document.

Nelson also presented on the hospital’s protective custody protocol, which was later approved by the board pending legal approval. The protocol set forth procedure for taking children into protective custody when necessary.

Also at the meeting, Phil Scheel introduced Dan Powell as the new director of the hospital foundation. A retired lawyer and municipal judge, Powell said he’s come to Thermopolis several times for recreation, and officially moved here about two years ago. He said he was apprehensive about finding a “lower gear” in retirement and started looking for something more to do last summer when he came across the ad for the director position.

Though he’s never served in a director capacity, Powell said in his work as a lawyer he represented non-profit organizations. He’s excited to be here and looks forward to helping bring in some money for the organization. The first foundation board meeting will be Nov. 20.

Board Member Dan Herdt reported that four nurses had 100 percent scans on medications last month.

Chief Financial Officer Shelly Larson said for September the days in accounts receivable were at 59.46, compared to 58.02 the previous month. The increase is primarily due to the fact that the hospital did not meet its collections target. Larson noted the clinics are meeting their target for September and continue to progress in bringing their days in accounts receivable down.

Days cash on hand for September were 36.78, and increase from the 35.3 of the previous month. Larson said it’s positive to see a little ground gained even though the hospital was short in terms of collection. From an operation standpoint, Larson said there was a net operating income of about $25,000.

Linda Veylupek reported the annual turnover rate for the hospital at this point in the year is significantly lower but they are still not at their goal. There are also improvements being made to the exit interview process and new employee orientation.