Houston, MO—Texas County Memorial Hospital has received a grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) that will give the local hospital the ability to “result” coronavirus (COVID-19) tests in-house, hospital board members heard at their monthly meeting on Tuesday.
The fully funded grant totaling $90,218 will cover the costs of the BioFire Dual Analyzer, respiratory verification kit and enough chemical reagents to complete approximately 300-400 COVID-19 tests. The test results generated from the new equipment will be available in as little as 45 minutes to 1-hour.
Currently TCMH has tested 27 patients for COVID-19 and all results have returned as “negative.” The hospital has struggled to obtain the test results for each of the patients tested in a timely manner, prompting the hospital to begin looking for options that might be available.
Although many of the recent COVID-19 test results have been resulted in approximately two days, some of the first tests the hospital sent out took nearly two weeks, causing unnecessary stress for the patients who had to wait.
Many healthcare organizations including area physician clinics, Salem District Memorial Hospital, nursing facilities and health departments from Douglas, Shannon, Texas and Wright counties will be able to send their COVID-19 tests directly to the TCMH laboratory for immediate processing to help cut down on the delayed turnaround times rural areas have been facing.
“We are very pleased to be able to offer this service to our community,” Wes Murray, TCMH chief executive officer said.
Murray added that in addition to the COVID-19 testing capabilities, the new analyzer will give the hospital laboratory the ability to process blood culture identification (BCID) and GI panels.
The BCID and GI panels are commonly ordered by TCMH providers, but they have always had to be sent out for processing in the past, adding delays to patient care.
Murray mentioned that Jay Gentry, TCMH Healthcare Foundation director, did a phenomenal job working with other healthcare organizations in the community and MFH to make the grant possible.
TCMH anticipates to have the new laboratory equipment in place and fully operational by mid May.
Based in St. Louis, MFH is an independent philanthropic foundation dedicated to improving the health of the uninsured and underserved in the region. TCMH has received grants for other projects from MFH in the past.
David Taylor, senior manager at BKD, LLP of Springfield, MO presented the board of trustee’s with a brief synopsis of the annual audit report at the monthly meeting.
Taylor reported that many significant changes occurred after December 31, 2019 that will help the year-end net position of the hospital by just over $200K.
Due to the stay at home orders issued in the state as a result of COVID-19, the entire annual audit process has taken place virtually and final results are currently pending. The full annual audit presentation is anticipated to take place during the May board of trustee’s meeting.
Linda Pamperien, TCMH chief financial officer presented the financial report for the month of March.
“Overall revenues were down $469,944 in March from our budgeted expectations,” Pamperien said. “Inpatient volumes were up $264,225 and outpatient revenue was down $817,657 for the month.”
TCMH closed out the month of March with total gross operating revenue of $6,529,733.14 with net revenues after reductions and contractuals being $2,229,561.98.
TCMH ended the month with a negative bottom line of $700,764.63 and year-to-date with a negative bottom line of $593,794.98.
Pamperien mentioned that the hospital’s days cash on hand (COH) was 57 at the end of March.
“Despite our decreased volumes, we are holding our own and doing everything we can to run as lean as possible,” Pamperien said.
The hospital administrative leaders are looking at all government funding that might be available to help support the hospital during the COVID-19 crisis.
“There is funding specifically available for rural facilities,” Pamperien said. “We have already applied for several programs and we anticipate that we may see some of those funds this coming week, potentially for the hospital and the clinics, although we don’t know for sure.”
In his administrative report, Murray mentioned that Jessica King, MD, new family medicine physician for Mountain Grove and Houston officially started on April 23.
“We are so pleased to have Dr. King on board with us,” Murray said. “Although this is probably not that best time to try to build a new practice, she has already oriented to the clinic and hospital with Dr. Beers, and she is now ready to begin seeing patients.”
King will see patients every Monday-Wednesday in the Mountain Grove clinic and Thursdays and Fridays in Houston at the Medical Complex.
Murray announced to the board members that Matthew Brown, MD has officially accepted the physician director position for TCMH Emergency Department effective May 1.
Brown will continue his clinic practice in addition to the new directorship role for the hospital.
Present at the meeting were Murray; Pamperien; Rachel Davis, public relations; Amanda Turpin, quality; Linda Milholen, MD; board members, Jim Perry, DO; Omanez Fockler; Allan Branstetter; Jay Loveland and guest, Taylor.
The next meeting of the TCMH board of trustees is Tuesday, May 26 at 12 p.m. in the hospital boardroom.
