Board Minutes 10/30/12

Wheatland Memorial Healthcare Board of Trustees’ Meeting

The meeting of the Board of Trustees of Wheatland Memorial Healthcare was held on October 30, 2012 in the Health Education Center.

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Leta Nash, Chairman

Lorraine Peterson, Vice Chairman Terry Freeser, Secretary/Treasurer June Voldseth

Lauri Cooney, Interim CEO

Don Amundson Mike Kent Susan Moore Aubrey Miller

Len Stanton, Patsy Elings

Chairman Nash called the meeting to order at 5:00pm.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

The  Board  went  into  Executive  Session  at  5:00  PM  until  7:40  PM  performing  telephone interviews with CEO candidates.

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Chairman  Nash  brought  the  Board  out  of  Executive  Session  at  7:40.  The  general  meeting reconvened at 7:45pm.

CONSENT AGENDA:

The consent agenda was presented. No changes were needed on the Board minutes.  Upon motion that was duly made and seconded all items in the consent agenda were adopted as written.

REGULAR AGENDA

1. a.       Resignation

Chairman Nash announced that Ken Deboer has moved from the area and has therefore tendered his resignation from the Board and that it had been accepted.

b.      Board Policies

A report was given by the Committee working on the Board  Policies. The committee  of Mr. Amundson,  Mr. Kent and Mr. Stanton, have split the policies amongst themselves. They will each work to eliminate redundancy with the By-Laws, assign more appropriate titles, etc. They will have revisions to Mr. Stanton by November 12, 2012 so a final approval can be made by January 1, 2013. The Board wants these fully established to use as the structure for guiding the CEO. The Board also discussed having a Parliamentarian appointed. This position would be in place to keep the board mindful of policies, monitor the policies and procedures, keeping all actions in compliance.

           c.       Agenda for CEO Candidate On-Site Visits

Discussion was held regarding site visits that will be taking place on November 7th with Jerry Siebenaler and on November 13th with Mike Zwicker. A copy of the agenda was given to all of the Board members. After a tour of the facility and a meet and  greet with staff members, a formal interview will be held followed by a tour of the town by either Jane Moe or Peggy Hiner.

d.      Interview  Questions

A list of suggested appropriate interview questions was given to the Board. After discussion the categories of questions were divided amongst Board members to choose their specific questions. Board members are to get their questions back to Ms. Cooney, who will make a final copy of all questions prior to the site visits. General, technical, professional knowledge and the closing will be done by Chairman Nash. Teamwork and communication will be done by Mr. Kent. Leadership and Work Standards will be done by Mr. Miller. Analysis and customer/client service will be done by Ms. Freeser. Adaptability, planning  and organization  and stressful  situations will be done by Ms.  Peterson. Sensitivity and ability to learn will be done by Ms. Voldseth. Initiative and job motivation will be done by Ms. Moore.

e.        Board Job Descriptions

Chairman Nash presented the final job descriptions for final Board approval. Upon motion that was made and seconded the Board Job Descriptions were adopted as written.

f.        Nominating Committee

Chairman Nash requested volunteers for the Nominating Committee to create a slate of Officers for the coming year.  Ms. Freeser and Ms. Voldseth will comprise the committee and will present a slate of officer candidates at the November meeting which will be the Board’s Annual meeting with the election of officers. Chairman Nash requested that she not be nominated for any offices next year.

g. New Board Member Training

Chairman Nash scheduled new Board member training for Friday, November 2″d at Sam for Mr. Kent and Mr. Miller. Vice Chairman Peterson and Chairman Nash will facilitate the training which should take approximately two hours.

Chairman Nash and Ms. Cooney will be composing an article to go into the Monday Update to keep the staff informed on the progress of the CEO interviews. The Monday update will resume being emailed to all staff members, Board Members, and Clergy in the future.

i.        Financials

A brief discussion was held regarding the financial statement. There is a general trend in a positive direction in the last 30 days. This positive reflection is due to an increase in business as well the draw down from the Promise Fund and was fully explained by Ms. Cooney. AR has slightly increased due to September being so busy. AR is at 83 days now. Net patient revenue has increased with more services being utilized in September. This has dropped our year to date loss for the year. The  Board maintains the goal of  getting AR days  down to 55 days. Ms. Cooney noted that the Revenue Cycle Management Team has not met for 3 weeks  due  to schedule conflicts between relevant members. Discussion was held regarding the drop in the number of clinic visits. We have full time providers and coverage. There should now be an increase in the number of clinic visits, not a decrease. It was the Board’s opinion that several things should be considered. Possible extension of hours of service, not turning people away due to acute visits only and the telephone needs to be answered earlier than starting at 8:00 AM with there being employees in the clinic at 7:00 am. The purpose of the facility is to care for our patients.  Upon motion that was made and seconded the Financials were adopted as written.

OTHER BUSINESS

Chairman Nash requested that all Board members review the list of pressing issues to see if they have been completed and their progress. The Board will work with Ms. Cooney on the operational and performance goals for 2013.

Ms. Cooney and Mr. Kent will attend the County Commissioners meeting next month to do a financial overview.

Ms. Cooney informed the group that the health fair is next week and that they should be aware that due to Medicare requirements for payment of vaccines, the flu shots will be only available for Medicare patients thru the clinic. A signup sheet was distributed to the Board to sign up to be a Greeter at the Health Fair.

Ms. Cooney informed the group that the annual CAH/RHC Annual Review has been scheduled for November 6’11 and on that day only the Medical Staff are required due to HIPPA as it entails medical record review. On November 19’11 the second half of the review will take place and Chairman Nash, Ms. Moore and Mr. Amundson agreed to attend that meeting representing the Board.