The Bradley County Medical Center Board of Directors met Thursday, May 23 inside the hospital’s conference room for its monthly gathering. Increased volumes, revenue, coding, ARPA funding, new hires, and policy approvals were just a few of the items touched on during the meeting.
Minutes from the April meeting were approved to kick things off before Controller Matt Pace presented the financial report. Pace relayed that volumes were increased almost completely across the board for the month of April compared to March. The hospital reported a net operating income of $145,106 for the month with the gross patient revenue totaling $3,782,336 and net operating revenue of $2,039,266. Salex tax revenue was $102,713.92 to bring the sales tax fund to $4,550,668.52. The BCMC Rural Health Clinic also reported a positive month.
CEO/CFO Leslie Huitt stated the most positive news was not having an operating loss and let the board know some of this is due to coding making progress with some the backlog. She said the key to consistent revenue will be consistency with getting charges added and let the board know this has been improving during the month of May.
An update on the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds was the next subject for Huitt. She said the hospital has submitted the data for the six-month review with Alvarez and Marsal and had a cybersecurity audit as a part of this process. The cybersecurity audit reported no “extraordinary findings” to put BCMC in good standing. Huitt should know more about this in June. Additionally, she let the board know that her and BCMC Rural Health Clinic Manager Paulette Tolefree will be in New Orleans for a revenue cycle/physician practice management conference later this month through the Delta Region Community Health Systems Development Grant.
Chief Nursing Officer Jamie Wolfe informed the board of a couple of new hires. Ginger Jeffers would be the new Surgery Manager and brings over 30 years of experience with her. Additionally, Chelsea French will be the new EMR (electronic medical records) Coordinator. Wolfe also had praise for First Station Manager Lisa Williams, who implemented a “Hydration Station” to go around to patients on the floor to help make their stay in the hospital better.
Chief Operating Officer Leeanna Williams also touched on a couple of recent hires including Cole Rawls as the Assistant Director of Maintenance and Tiffany Wargo, APRN, at the BCMC Rural Health Clinic, who is a mental health professional and started on May 13. Additionally, she gave a brief recap of National Hospital Week and thanked First State Bank, Warren Bank, Union Bank, CURA (hospital dietary), Legacy Rehabilitation, Rollin’ With the Homes Ice Cream Truck, Warren Elementary School, Mayor Gregg Reep, the BCMC Auxiliary, KJ Fresh Produce and More, Joey Cathey Insurance, and the Hatcher Agency for participating.
Williams ended her recap by mentioning the retirees honored at the Service Awards ceremony. The retirees were Mary Ann McDougald, Thelma Ferrell, Barbara Harvey, Sharon Haynes, and Cliff Moore.
The meeting transitioned to policy approvals with the HIPAA Policy up for annual approval, where it passed unanimously. Separate policies for Urine Culture Reflex Testing, Medication Room Cleaning, Contracted Employee Onboarding, and Negative Air Pressure with Checklist were approved by the board.
The next item discussed was a recap of the Revenue Cycle Management and Physician Practice Management Assessment that was completed by Forvis that was contracted through the DRCHSD Grant. An update on the action items found through this assessment was given to the board.
The board then unanimously approved a request to use up to $100,000 of sales tax funds to purchase new computers. There are a number of computers deployed throughout the organization that will not be able to upgrade to Windows 11 once Windows 10 reaches end of support in 2025 so these funds will be used to replace those.
Next on the docket was an overview of several reports for the board that included the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAPHS) with CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) Benchmarks and BCMC Target Percentile Ranking. These evaluations include patient surveys and are used in the CMS Quality Rating System.
The board went into an executive session. Medical staff recommendations were approved, and the meeting was adjourned.
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