Before the skies broke loose Tuesday night, hospital board trustees walked the grounds of the new Allen County Hospital.
Safely inside its skeleton, the rain, hail and high winds were deafening against the metal roof.
Still, the tour was illuminating of how spacious the new facility will be and how easy it will be to navigate between departments.
After the hour-long tour, trustees resumed their meeting at the current hospital.
Cris Rivera, chief executive officer of ACH, gave an overview of a business plan for 2013 designed by Hospital Corporation of America administrators, the current management organization.
The business plan can serve as a blueprint to follow when local trustees assume management of the hospital at the first of the year.
Trustees agreed the plan seemed to work.
For the year so far, the hospital has more than doubled its projected profits.
Rivera noted an increase of services for 2012 including those for wound and pain treatments, an increase of admissions for hospice care, outpatient services, surgeries, inpatient admissions and requests for home health care.
The wound care and pain care clinics have been “very fruitful and productive,” Rivera said.
The staff has remained steady at the hospital. In the last year the amount of overall employee turnover has decreased from 14.2 percent to 8.9 percent.
For registered nurses, turnover has decreased from 7.8 percent to 5 percent.
The demographics of southeast Kansas are a concern, Rivera said. The mix of patients – young or old, poor or economically sound, healthy or ill – is dwindling. To counter the loss of those young and healthy, Rivera said the hospital is interested in working with Iola Industries and Thrive Allen County to recruit new industries to town.
The hospital also is gearing itself to recruit a new generation of family physicians and a registered nurse anesthetist for expected retirements over the next several years. The hospital also will beef up its efforts to recruit specialty physicians such as orthopedic surgeon and oncologist and a urologist.
Recruiting specialists “is harder than I thought it would be,” Rivera said, noting the 90-mile drive from Kansas City, for example, “takes a big chunk out of a doctor’s day.”
The hospital’s top three goals for next year, are:
*To acquire on-site oncology coverage to provide more comprehensive care for those battling cancer;
*To acquire a multi-slice CT scanner; and
*To acquire the appropriate software for oncology patient management.
“It’s better to set our sights on a few goals than an entire list,” Rivera said.
A NEW MEDICAL office building to be built adjacent to the new hospital is in the planning stages, said Harry Lee, trustees chairman.
Lee said estimates are that the building would be 15,000 square feet and still be a bargain to build, “possibly as low as $165 a square foot.”
