Paris, Tenn.–The Henry County Medical Center Board of Trustees heard an update of the ongoing COVID-19 situation in the county which shows another rise in COVID-19 positive cases and a tightening of available critical care beds in the state.
Hospital CEO Lisa Casteel shared with the Board of Trustees statistics illustrating the rise in COVID-19 cases in the state and specifically in Henry County. Prior to this week, rates had gone down significantly, but as of Thursday night, the Henry County rate is now at 18%. There has also been a tightening of available critical care beds in the state as well.
“What does this mean to us?,” Casteel asked. “It means visitation for nursing homes is closed again. It means that we have a tightening of critical care resources across the State. And it means longer wait times for bed availability, and transfer ability to other facilities.”
Board Member and Henry County Commissioner Kreg Kyle said, “With these increases, we need to continue to encourage our community to wear masks and practice social distancing.”
The Board of Trustees has asked Casteel to pursue and recommend another installment of the masking campaign within the community, encouraging Henry Countians to continue the course with masking, social distancing, and handwashing to ensure our community’s health. Casteel will speak with city and county government about opportunities.
HCMC Laboratory Services now has instrumentation to process COVID-19 and respiratory testing in-house. They currently are testing inpatient and emergency room patients with this equipment. Since turn-around times with outside labs has improved, outpatients are being tested through the outside labs to conserve reagents.
HCMC has been asked by the State Hospital Association to serve on the State Commissioner of Health appointed Perinatal Advisory Committee. Rhonda Crossett, Director of Women’s Center, has agreed to serve on this committee to represent HCMC.
Financially, HCMC has seen a positive quarter. With grant funding, HCMC’s bottom line is a consolidated $1.4 million, but without those funds, we still saw a $141,000 balance. It is a marked improvement over last year during the same time period. With a higher severity case mix index and reduction of expenses, HCMC is seeing an improved bottom line.
Bad debts for the month were approved for $613,346.10. Additionally, a few capital equipment requests were approved at $45,305, with the majority of the expense for surgery equipment at the Surgery Center. Casteel also gave an investment update to the Board of Trustees.
Neely Ashby, Chief Nursing Officer, discussed various equipment that HCMC plans to purchase with COVID-19 grant funding to increase the capacity of care for these patients. Possible equipment includes adding telemetry to 2 South, purchasing more BiPap and vapotherm machines as well as IV poles. Other items are also being looked at and a full listing will be presented to the Board at next month’s meeting.
Billie McKee, Chief Human Resources Officer, provided an update on the People and Community pillars. In FY2020, we met all our goals with our engaging forums, quarterly leadership training, employee survey, PayCom enhancements, and employee health plan. Looking forward in FY2021, we are working on employee engagement with a third partner survey with a goal of 100% participation. This will be completed this week with results reported the end of the year. We still conduct daily huddles will re-establish the employee newsletter.
HCMC received a $15,000 grant from the American Job Center TN to benefit workforce development in nursing, laboratory, pharmacy, and other areas. We are pursuing other grant opportunities. Additionally, a social media campaign for recruitment is being developed and launched.
Photo: Hospital CEO Lisa Casteel updates the board. (HCMC photo).