Paris, Tenn.–Meeting for its monthly session, the Henry County Medical Center Board of Trustees learned first-hand the how the organization is continuing to grow to serve the community.
The HCMC Board toured the newly opened Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine, which merged wound care services in Henry County to better serve patients. Lindsay Foust, Alycia Gibson, and Sonya Clark answered questions for the group about the new facility and services offered.
“The clinic has been open for about three weeks and on average we have seen over 20 patients a day,” said Charles Dyer, Chief Business Development Officer at HCMC. “Patients seem to like the new location and the process has been smooth with six exam rooms and a treatment room.”
After the tour, the Board convened its monthly meeting with an administrative report from Lisa Casteel, Chief Executive Officer. She discussed regulatory news including the Legislative Day for Healthcare that both she and Dr. Scott Whitby, Board Chairman, attended. The main topic of discussion centered on Certificate of Need legislation.
Casteel also reported on the balanced scorecard and stated that the eight bed Progressive Care Unit would be opening sometime in March with a tour to come soon. Recruiting efforts continue with pediatrics and general surgery. Currently, an offer has been made to a pediatrician and two other candidates have interest in coming. Additionally, a general surgery candidate will be onsite sometime in March.
Additionally, Casteel discussed the visit from the Delta consultants and introduced the new Community Champion for the program, Gina Matlock. She provided their community health assessment with the group. The group will return in March to do their quality review and James Travis agreed to serve as the board member involved in the visit.
“The consultants were very impressed with us and our abilities,” said Casteel. “They mentioned that we have a very highly engaged management group and that already looking at our quality measures that we are doing very well as an organization.”
Financially, HCMC saw a better month in January with a consolidated month end of $58,196. Physician clinics have also seen an improvement, with better than budget and last year numbers. The board approved the financial report along with $641,812.93 in bad debt and $6,260 in capital equipment that included a wound care chair and surgical scissors for the Surgery Center.
Chief Nursing Officer Neely Ashby provided her quarterly report on quality at the meeting. She reviewed the quality measures for the organization, stating that the hospital is still a three star facility, that the all cause readmit rate is at 3.33%, and it had no cauti infections or pressure ulcers during the last quarter. Safety rounds continue to be done which have seen improvement and will keep the hospital prepared for JACHO accreditation. HCMC is looking to submit for geriatric accreditation in April and will begin working on Pulmonary Rehab accreditation soon. Additionally, Ashby talked about the coronavirus and the hospital’s preparations around this regarding supplies and people being trained within the facility. Ashby was most excited to share the quality results for psychiatry because these measures have greatly improved over the past few months thanks to real time chart reviews. Lake Haven Behavioral Center has also seen improved census this month with all beds at times being occupied.
Kelley Rushing was introduced by Casteel as the current Director of Physician Practice Management as well as the new Chief Business Development Officer when Dyer, the current CBDO retires on April 2. Rushing provided an update on the clinics and discussed the various clinic models that are being investigated to assist in financial improvement for the clinics. He also discussed standardizing operations in the clinics as well as consolidating credentialing and payment posting for the clinics.