The Greene County Medical Center Board of Trustees met yesterday in regular session.
The Board is considering enhancing their main logo to incorporate their partnership in healthcare with UnityPoint Health. Chief Executive Officer Carl Behne told Raccoon Valley Radio why they want to enhance their logo.
“We’re looking to continue to highlight the partnership that we have, with our relationship with UnityPoint (Health). We want to continue to make sure that the public is aware and continue to be that local owned and operated healthcare entity for our community and so this is just a way to continue to show that.”
The Board was presented with two options of the logo and will be voting on it at next month’s meeting.
The Board approved a few revisions of its by-laws. Some of the changes to the Board by-laws includes holding at least one meeting per year instead of requiring one meeting a month and when it is set during thE month, election of Board officers will be done in January instead of December, the Board is no longer required to have community members be a part of committees, changing the amount of money for purchases or payments for repairs that can be made without the Board’s approval went from $50,000 to $100,000 maximum.
During the financial report, occupational therapy had its highest amount of visits in September for the year, while inpatient, major surgery and radiology all reported their second to lowest amount of visitors for September for the year. September’s operating revenues were at $1,739,235 which was slightly above the budgeted amount of $1,677,384. The operating expenses were at $2,066,802 which was also above the budgeted amount of $1,983,572. Chief Financial Officer Mark VanderLinden said some of the reasons why the medical center had-for the first time this fiscal year-higher than budgeted amounts for expenses was partially because they were catching up on their utility costs that were normally paid a month behind. That means for September, the hospital had a net loss of $191,219.
Year-to-date operating revenues are at $5,405,192 which is below the budget of $5,643,978. Operating expenses are at $6,120,011 which is slightly over budget of $6,082,953. Overall, the hospital is operating at a net loss of $294,185.
Other figures include a drop in patient days with 38, down from August’s 82. Admissions had 19 for September compared to last year’s 33 and outpatient visits are at 6,397 for the year compared to last year’s 6,525 at this same time period.
Anne Grill, patient experience advisor for Press Ganey gave survey results about patient satisfaction of the medical center. Recently, the medical center participated in the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey. Since the medical center is a Critical Access Hospital, they can conduct the survey and not have to submit the results to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The areas that were surveyed included the emergency room, inpatient and outpatient services. ER scored in the 91st percentile which is in the top 8% in the country, inpatient services were at a 37th percentile and outpatient were at the 56th percentile. Most of the issues for inpatient and outpatient services were communication and how the staff responds to someone’s requests. Most of the information from the surveys had an overall “good” rating. Behne said they are trying to go from the “good” to “great” level with their care for everyone to have a positive experience at the hospital. However, other factors also play a role in some of the figures being down due to construction and IT implementation which the medical center recently transitioned over to a new electronic system with EPIC.