NRMC board welcomes new members

Thursday, January 28, 2010

New board members joined the Nevada Regional Medical Center board of directors Tuesday during the regular monthly meeting in the mezzanine conference room in the north tower. Cathy Hissink, Julie McKinley and Dave Milam were appointed to replace the members who had term-limited off the board.

Judy Feuquay, CEO and board president, told the board new physicians were also coming on board, if they approved. Dr. Joseph Dodd, general surgeon; and Dr. David Colgrove, ear, nose and throat specialist; are set to join the medical staff in the spring. A visiting rheumetologist will periodically be coming to the specialty clinic beginning in February.

Feuquay said the new building housing the outpatient therapy departments, the Clinical Services Building, would be the location for the February board meeting as well as several other events including an open house for the employees and physicians on Feb. 24 with an open house and ribbon cutting for the chamber of commerce Feb. 25.

The hospital's CFO Cindy Buck explained to the board the necessity to revise the budget in light of increasing contractual allowances and the need to balance the budget. Contractual allowance is the difference between what the hospital charges an insurance company or Medicare and Medicaid and what they receive in payment.

"A 1 percent increase in contractual allowances has a $750,000 negative impact," Buck said. "Contractual allowances have increased from 47 percent to 54 percent over this period."

Feuquay and Buck agreed that revising the budget was unusual.

"This is the first time to my knowledge that we've done something like this," Buck said.

Feuquay reported to the board on a federal program that provides hospitals with opportunities to purchase outpatient drugs at a discount. The hospital pharmacy tracked 15 drugs over a six-month period and realized a $37,000 savings. Software to track and monitor usage of 18,500 drugs is available for $55,000, which could be quickly recouped by savings. The board approved the purchase.

Feuquay told the board moving the records into the space vacated by the Rehabilitation department after its move to the Clinical Services Building required purchasing shelving to accommodate them at a cost of $35,000.

"The new shelving will provide enough space for all records to be located in the same space," Feuquay said. "Currently, we have medical records located in three different areas. This was not budgeted as we did not foresee the purchase of the CSB, which allowed for the relocation of Rehab and then Health Services."

In other business the board:

* Approved $31,500 for identical lab equipment for the Rich Hill and Sheldon clinics.

* Approved a contract with a company, Avatar, for the distribution of patient satisfaction surveys and calculating the results.

* Approved $75,000 for software licenses needed because of the increasing number of clinics the hospital is operating.

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