Texas County Memorial Hospital executive leaders and board members said goodbye last week to a pair of men at the conclusion of their monthly meeting.
Mark Hampton attended his last meeting as a board member after serving in the role for a decade. Jonathan Beers, DO, also attended his last meeting as TCMH chief of staff.
In fall 2018, Hampton decided not to pursue a third term on the hospital board. He will be replaced by Alan Branstetter, a Houston native and a recent retiree after years of service in the electrical industry.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the hospital and the community in this role for the last 10 years,” Hampton said. “You will be in good hands with Mr. Branstetter, he’s a top-shelf guy.”
Linda Milholen, MD, will begin serving as the new TCMH chief of staff effective April 1. Beers will continue his work as a clinician, but will no longer be required to attend the monthly board meetings following the conclusion of his term as chief of staff at the end of March.
“Thank you to Dr. Beers and Mark for the many years of service you have given to the hospital in your roles,” said Linda Pamperien, TCMH chief financial officer.
Wes Murray, TCMH chief executive officer, said Hampton was always readily available when Murray needed to discuss anything with him, even if he was away, working out of the country on different occasions.
Murray complimented Beers for the leadership he has provided to the hospital while serving as the chief of staff.
“I appreciate your even keel composure and your steadfast work, such as completing the physician call schedules every month,” Murray said. “It is not an easy task, and you’ve worked tirelessly to try to accommodate everyone’s requests, even when they come in last minute.”
Beers smiled when he mentioned that he is a little excited to have a bit more time back for himself and his family each day going forward.
“I have enjoyed the opportunity to serve as the chief of staff at TCMH for the past four years. It has been a great experience overall,” Beers said.
Beers started his internal medicine career with TCMH in August 2012. In just a little over two years into his employment at TCMH, he became the new chief of staff.
“Dr. Beers has excelled in his position as chief of staff, and I never doubted that he could do it, not even for a minute,” Murray said. “I am grateful that we have been able to utilize him in this position for the past several years.”
FINANCIAL REPORT
During her presentation of the financial report for February, Pamperien said overall revenues were down $1,019,174 from our budgeted expectations. Inpatient volumes were down $127,971, and outpatient revenue was down $849,218.”
Pamperien said that several outpatient departments were down in February, which led to the significantly decreased revenues for the month. The outpatient departments with higher decreased revenues included surgery, pharmacy, CT (computerized tomography), sleep lab and the ambulance.
Some of the departments that contributed positive revenues to the hospital in February included emergency room/physicians, laboratory, nuclear medicine and respiratory therapy due to their increased volumes.
Overall expenses for February were down $492,592 compared to budgeted expectations.
Pamperien reported that only two departments had increased expenses for the month: The emergency room, with increased salary expenses and administration, with increased legal fees.
TCMH ended February with a negative bottom line of $304,723 and a negative year-to-date bottom line of $208,606.
PARTNERING WITH ‘REIMAGINE RURAL HEALTH’
Murray told the board of trustees that the Missouri Hospital Association and Gov. Mike Parson have been working together to address the challenges that rural healthcare faces. The project is called Reimagine Rural Health.
A list of the top 10 issues facing rural healthcare has been established, along with proposals to policy options that should be carefully looked at further and discussed to address the issues.
“It is important to the future of our hospital, as well as other rural hospitals throughout Missouri that state leaders are actively engaged in working through the issues that we face in rural healthcare,” Murray said.
Murray said one of the areas that will receive focus is Missouri’s Medicaid program.
“If Missouri Medicaid were reformed, the state would go back over the last six years and pay a little more in reimbursement for each claim,” Pamperien said. “For TCMH, that could bring us an additional $2 million in payments.”
“When Missouri Medicaid expansion failed in the state several years ago, the negative effects have continued to hit rural hospitals hard due to the large patient populations that are still uninsured,” Murray said. “In the month of February alone, the hospital wrote off $520,902 in bad debt. Many of those dollars came from uninsured patients, patients who might have qualified for Missouri Medicaid if it would have been expanded.”
In partnership with the MHA, the board of trustees voted to pass the Texas County Memorial Hospital Board Resolution for the Reimagine Rural Health initiative.
Present at the meeting were Murray; Pamperien; Doretta Todd-Willis, chief nursing officer; Amanda Turpin, quality director; Beers; Rachel Davis, director of public relations; board members, Jim Perry, OD; Omanez Fockler; Janet Wiseman and Jay Loveland.
The next meeting of the TCMH board of trustees is noon Tuesday, April 23, in the hospital board room.