Houston, MO—The Texas County Memorial Hospital’s Family Clinic in Licking recently passed their Rural Health Clinic inspection conducted by the State of Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, board members heard at their monthly meeting on Tuesday.
“State inspections are always unannounced and complete surprises,” Linda Pamperien, TCMH chief financial officer, said. “The Licking Family Clinic team was ready and well-prepared.”
Pamperien explained that there are many metrics to the inspection including checking medications for proper storage and dating, infection prevention procedures, patient privacy policies and procedures, laboratory testing requirements, biohazard containers, sterilized instruments, and patient care policies.
Pamperien noted that the inspection was the first one for the clinic under the management of Melanie Scavone, clinic manager.
“The clinic passed with 100 percent compliance and zero deficiencies,” Pamperien said. “We are so proud of our Licking Clinic and the amazing job they do every day.”
“Everyone at the clinic works hard to stay compliant and provide exceptional patient care,” Pamperien said. “They did extremely well with the unexpected inspection and made TCMH shine.”
William Mahoney, chief executive officer at Cox Hospital in Branson, delivered a presentation to the hospital board on the overall status of Missouri hospitals including financial insights, government efforts, and personnel issues. Mahoney shared that the challenges at TCMH are similar at most hospitals in Missouri and around the nation.
Pamperien presented the financial report for the month of August.
“Our outpatient revenue had a positive increase of $782,487 from our budgeted expectations for the month,” Pamperien said. “This led to a slight increase of $65,140 in our overall revenues for August.”
“Our inpatient volumes took another hit this month and were down $680,336, a 37.6 percent decrease from our budgeted expectations,” Pamperien reported. “However, we are pleased that the hospital’s overall expenses were down $59,485 for the month.”
The hospital ended the month of August with a negative bottom line of $204,702 and a year-to-date loss of $3,087,454.
Jeff Tindle, president of Tindle and Associates, gave an update on the search for a new chief executive officer.
According to Tindle, over 20 qualified applicants have submitted resumes for the job, and Tindle and Associates is doing screening interviews with each applicant.
A search committee implemented by the board of trustees will review the final candidates and conduct interviews. The search committee will give a recommendation to the board of trustees for candidates to bring in for full interviews. Tindle told board members the process usually takes three to five months to hire a new CEO.
Courtney Owens, TCMH chief nursing officer, introduced Grace Goslee, the new pharmacist at Hutcheson Pharmacy.
“We are excited to have Grace on our team in this new role,” Owens said. “We are confident she will do an outstanding job as she leads the Hutcheson team.”
Owens reported that Dr. Hollis Tidmore, general surgeon, recently performed the first two vascular procedures at TCMH and both were very successful.
“We are excited to have vascular procedures at TCMH for our patients,” Owens said. “Vascular services have not been available at TCMH, and it’s great to have this service available here along with Dr. Tidmore’s complete set of general surgery skills.”
Jeff Gettys, TCMH Healthcare Foundation director, noted that a pre-bid meeting for the surgery center infill would be held at TCMH on October 18th. Bids will be taken from interested contractors, opened, and awarded on November 1.
With several construction and capital projects underway at the hospital, Wes Murray, interim chief executive officer, presented a breakdown showing the expenses and the actual cost to TCMH. TCMH anticipates $5,339,710 for the surgery center infill, the east wing remodel, the new Licking clinic and ambulance base, and LED messaging display boards for the hospital and clinics. TCMH has secured $4,716,710 in grants and outside funding to pay for these expenditures. The hospital’s capital outlay will be $292,171 or 5.47 percent of the total cost for the projects.
Gettys shared information with the board about the upcoming TCMH Healthcare Foundation Hospice of Care online auction. The auction will begin Monday, November 21 until Wednesday, November 30. The foundation is currently seeking sponsors, items to bid on, and monetary donations.
Helania Wulff, TCMH director of physician recruitment, detailed current recruiting efforts. A family medicine physician who intends to practice obstetrics as part of a future practice visited the hospital in September.
“We are also actively seeking additional internal medicine and family medicine physicians,” Wulff said. “Screening interviews are ongoing with potential candidates.”
According to Wulff, interviews for additional mid-level providers are also in progress.
“We are pleased to announce that Latricia Juneau, FNP, has signed a contract with TCMH,” Wulff said. “She will be working in our Houston clinic and will be a great addition and a wonderful asset to our medical staff.”
Murray commended the leadership team for their leadership over the last two months.
“It is an honor to be asked by the board of trustees to come back as the interim CEO,” Murray said. “It feels good to be back at TCMH and I consider it to be a privilege.”
Present at the meeting were Pamperien; Mahoney; Tindle; Owens; Gettys; Murray; Wulff; April Crites, quality/risk management director; Tricia Benoist, MD, chief of staff; Renina Pearce, medical staff coordinator; board members, Joleen Durham; Jim Perry, OD; Jay Loveland, and Allan Branstetter.
The next meeting of the TCMH board of trustees is Tuesday, October 25 at 12 p.m. in the hospital board room.
