2 new doctors working at MMH emergency room

Melissa Memorial Hospital has welcomed two new emergency department hospitalists, reported CEO Cathy Harshbarger at a board of directors meeting for East Phillips County Hospital District on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

While the two doctors are not at MMH full time, Harshbarger said they are willing to work some shifts in Holyoke, and she’s been getting great feedback from patients and staff members.

David Alcindor, M.D., is originally from Durango and has over 19 years of professional experience serving as a medical director and several locum tenens positions in various Midwest hospitals.

He served four years in the U.S. Air Force at Wichita, Kansas, and completed a deployment to Kuwait. In his free time, Alcindor is an online instructor/mentor in trading financial markets and a proprietary developer of predictive analysis and forecasting in financial markets.

Michael Bolton, M.D., MBA, is an experienced CEO with over 15 years in the medical staffing industry. After working for 10 years as a board-certified emergency physician, he founded a successful health care staffing company, Coast-to-Coast Healthcare Services. His passion for improving rural health care naturally led to C2C focusing on serving remote critical access hospitals, expanding to more than 20 states for over a decade.

He served in the U.S. Air Force and volunteered for two combat missions to Baghdad, Iraq, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Bolton’s military training includes certification as a flight surgeon and critical care air transport team physician.

In her administrator’s report, Harshbarger also announced Mike Jaffe has been hired as a pharmacy director for inpatient and chemotherapy needs.

She reported that the move from Banner Health to IT service vendor Elevate is on track for full implementation in June. The facility’s security system was recently updated, and a sterilizer for instrument cleaning was installed.

On behalf of the Holyoke Community Childcare Initiative, Harshbarger said that they are working on an offer to purchase land from First Baptist Church, which is south of MMH. While a proposed child care center was planned for land donated by MMH north of the hospital, HCCI is looking at other options to potentially save $1 million in infrastructure costs.

“This is a win-win to get to a resolution we can afford,” said Harshbarger.

End-of-year financials reported

Because the board of directors didn’t meet as originally planned at the end of January, Chief Financial Officer David Applewood gave board members an update on both December and January financials.

Total revenue in December was $2.7 million, total expenses were $2.1 million, and the net income was $611,000, he said.

MMH finished 2021 with $25.4 million in revenue. The year’s net income totaled $2.7 million, which included $1.45 million from Paycheck Protection Program round one forgiveness, $1.48 million of PPP round two forgiveness and $932,000 of funds recognized from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. Without those three things, the net income was negative $292,100.

Applewood’s January report included total revenue of $2.1 million, total expenses of $2 million and net income of $5,700.

Other business

In other business at last Tuesday’s meeting, the board:

— Heard a Quality Committee report from Karen Hooker, who happily shared the good news that there were no hospital-acquired infections in 2021.

— Reviewed Policy 2.5 regarding financial condition and activities, Policy 2.0 regarding general management constraint, Policy 1.1 regarding relief from acute and chronic conditions, Policy 2.1 regarding community/external relations and Governance Policy 4.2 regarding board job products.

— Approved Harshbarger as the designated election official.

— Heard about an upcoming purchase for a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

— Approved credentialing for five initial applicants and 16 reappointments.

— Held an executive session for personnel and strategy.