Hospital board reviews audit report

The Nevada Regional Medical Center board of directors heard good news from Tim Wolters, of the hospital's auditors, Baird, Kurtz & Dobson Certified Public Accountants Tuesday at their regular monthly meeting in the hospital's mezzanine conference room. Wolters said that the report was a clean opinion, and that the hospital's staff did an excellent job.

"This is a clean opinion, an unqualified opinion," Wolters said. "We believe it fairly represents an accurate position. The staff were very helpful, and at a time that when they were involved in the switchover to the computer system, a very stressful time."

Wolters said there were some things which were always going to be of concern, such as the issue of segregation of duties in handling and documenting money. The issue is more pronounced at the two care centers, Barone and Moore-Few, simply because the available staff is smaller; but even there Wolters said the hospital has shown diligence to avoid any problems.

"As for the segregation of duties issue, it's not unusual," Wolters said, speaking of the two care centers. "You have a very small management staff and it would be impractical to hire a large enough staff to eliminate it."

Wolters said the hospital could lose its classification as a Medicare Dependent Hospital if the percentage of Medicare patients remains below 60 percent. The change in status would mean a loss of $300,000 a year. Another change could come at the end of 2009 if Congress does not reauthorize some legislation. That loss could be $800,000 a year.

The hospital writes off fewer charges than the average hospital. The average hospital writes off 54 percent of charges while NRMC writes off 48 percent.

"You are writing off less than the average because your charges are lower in the first place," Wolter said.

The hospital is also managing to retain more of the money it brings in that the average.

"Your margin is 8 percent," Wolters said. "The average margin for hospitals is 2 percent."

CEO Judy Feuquay told the board the switch to the new computer system is proceeding apace and that there have been two practice runs.

"The go-live date is Nov. 1 for many of the modules and we're all getting ready for that," Feuquay said. "I want to thank everyone for their hard work on this project."

The kitchen projects in the two care centers hit a snag when it was discovered that an architect would have to be employed to deal with them.

"After getting into the project it was discovered the change was substantial enough to require the services of an architect," Feuquay said. "We thought $40,000 was excessive but we checked around and for a project of this scope it was a reasonable charge."

Feuquay asked the board to approve the $40,000 so the projects could move forward, and they approved it. The board also approved a contract with Dr. Fred Thompson as the medical director of the Barone Care Center. Dr. Subramanian had his lease renewed and Dr. Gravely took over the Home Health and Hospice Medical Directorship from Dr. Whitesell, who is leaving this month.

Feuquay told the board physician recruitment was still being pursued with emphasis on the psychiatrist and ENT positions.

Feuquay said the NRMC Foundation Gala was a success with 130 guests attending the "Evening in the Orient". The foundation netted $3,000 from the $11,500 the event brought in.