MMH expands with new chemo facility

    Starting in 2019, local cancer patients won’t have to travel out of county to receive lifesaving treatment.
    Melissa Memorial Hospital plans to open its new chemotherapy mixing room by the end of the year, CEO Trampas Hutches announced at the East Phillips County Hospital District’s July 24 board meeting.
    “It’s fortunately a very good community service project that we needed and that the community said they wanted,” he said.
    A 2016 assessment sponsored by the hospital revealed that 3,400 chemotherapy visits were leaving the community every year. Hutches added that he’s confident demand will offset the cost of improvements, which are estimated at $48,000.
    Many of the drugs used in chemotherapy are potent  enough to endanger the medical personnel preparing them. Mixing rooms are designed to protect employees and maintain the cleanliness of the mixing environment.
    Hutches said the only improvements necessary to bring the current room into compliance with code are surface work and the installation of an HVAC system.
    The hospital will offer treatment in both outpatient and patient rooms. One person will be responsible for preparing the drugs, with two others providing backup services as needed.
    Three bids for the project have been received so far. The board will wait to vote on a bid until they have a chance to review the materials received.
    
Surveys show high satisfaction
    Survey results were presented at the July 24 meeting that showed a high rate of job satisfaction among health care providers and other hospital employees compared to previous years.
    The 2018 MMH Provider Satisfaction/Engagement Survey was distributed using the SurveyMonkey online platform and was completed by 11 of the hospital’s 12 providers. The anonymous survey asked 13 questions on a 1-4 scale, with 4 being the most affirmative response.
    2018 was the first year that the survey was offered. Providers were asked about work-life balance, patient load, compensation, communication with supervisors and intra-hospital cooperation at MMH. Taken as an average of all responses, overall satisfaction was measured at 82 percent.
    The most agreeable statement was, “I am satisfied with my schedule and work hours,” to which the average response was a 3.82. The least agreeable was, “I receive feedback on my thoughts and ideas when brought to my supervisors,” to which the average response was a 2.18.
    Hutches said most respondents declined to use the space provided for comments but that the comments made concerned communication opportunities and being open to suggestions. Communication will be the focus of the new improvement plan.
    The results were also benchmarked against the Medscape National Provider Compensation/Engagement Survey. Family medicine providers who responded to the Medscape survey had a 46 percent rate of overall job satisfaction, which is 78 percent lower than the rate of satisfaction at MMH.
    The Medscape survey also showed that 53 percent of family medicine providers were satisfied with their pay, compared to 81 percent of MMH providers.
    As part of their improvement plan, Hutches said that management plans to sit down with providers this week to collaborate on solutions regarding communication.
    The 2018 MMH Employee Engagement/Satisfaction Survey used the same SurveyMonkey platform to ask 23 questions of other hospital employees. The survey was first administered in 2014 and was developed by Press Ganey (formerly Avatar).
    This year’s survey compared favorably to other Press Ganey surveys and showed strong improvement over previous years.
    The overall rate of satisfaction in the second MMH survey was 89 percent. For comparison, the rate in 2014 was 44 percent; 2015, 45 percent; 2016, 84 percent; and 2017, 82 percent.
    The rate of employees who would recommend MMH as a good place to work was 95 percent. For comparison, the rate in 2017 was 92 percent; 2016, 91 percent; 2015, 57 percent; and 2014, 63 percent. MMH’s score on this question puts it in the Press Ganey “best in class” range, which extends upward from 87 percent.
    Another best-in-class-tier response was to the question of whether senior management cares about employees. The MMH response was 80 percent positive, compared to the best-in-class benchmark of 71 percent, a national average of 56 percent and a 2015 rate of 36 percent.
    Comments on the employee survey were largely oriented toward a desire for additional education and training programs.
    Hutches said the employee benefits committee has been tasked with making recommendations to senior leadership regarding education. An organizational communications plan is also under development, as well as an employee culture committee, which will seek national recognition for people and programs at MMH.
    
Looka attends CRHC training
    Family nurse practitioner Lane Looka, who serves as the medical staff liaison to the senior leadership team, reported to the board about the leadership training he has been receiving through a Colorado Rural Health Center program.
    Looka’s training is funded by a $10,000 grant from the Colorado Health Foundation. Following a two-day class, the program has participants meet with a mentor, who helps them identify their leadership style and work one-on-one to improve their leadership skills.
    The program will continue into April and conclude with a course in health care legislation and policy.
    During the training, Looka identified the creation of a provider forum at MMH as his key leadership goal. The forum would gather ideas and concerns and present them to the senior leadership of the hospital.
    Looka said that he has seen improvements in cooperation within the hospital even recently, and seemed optimistic about the future of communication between hospital administration and staff.
    “I just want to bring the provider team together to work more as a team,” he said. “I think there’s definitely been a culture change in the past six to nine months.”
    
White, Cano report
    MMH CFO Wes White reported at the July 24 meeting that June was another successful month for the hospital, which again saw high admissions and came in over budget for net income.
    Net income for June was $271,549, which was well above the budgeted income of $32,937. To date for 2018, net income is $502,240, compared to a budgeted net income of $210,947.
    “We’ve had a very successful month and a very successful first six months of the year,” White said.
    Inpatient utilization reached a high for the year, with 87 inpatient days clocked in June. White and MMH Quality Improvement Coordinator Jennifer Cano reported that there were 87 emergency department visits in June, with 28 admissions.
    White announced that financing for the new cardiac monitoring system was finalized, and personnel will be on-site to install the system during the week of Aug. 6. Additionally, he reported that Felicia Lewis of Memphis, Tennessee, has been hired as the new business office manager and will begin work Aug. 6.
    Cano also reported that a nurse-driven catheter-removal protocol is being created to decrease the amount of time that patients spend with urinary catheters.
    Cano said that there have been no cases of MRSA this year. In response to a question from board member Steve Young, Cano said the infection, which is caused by an antibiotic-resistant strain of the Staphylococcus aureus bacterium, is still a national concern and a major focus of the antibiotic stewardship movement.
    Looka also commented on the hospital’s adherence to the principles of antibiotic stewardship, which include using no more antibiotics than necessary for a minimal amount of time to avoid creating antibiotic-resistant infections.
    
Child care initiative approved
    The hospital will be looking for architects and finalizing its fundraising estimate for the construction and initial operation of the new child care facility, Hutches reported.
    It is hoped that enough funds will be raised to keep the facility operational for the first five years, which is when they estimate it will become profitable, based on figures solicited from similar facilities in neighboring communities.
    Hutches also said that a potential director for the facility has been identified who has experience building day care facilities.
    
Other business
    In other business, during the July 24 meeting, the hospital board:
    — Heard from Sue Jarrett of Yuma County, who raised concerns over the circumstances of Dr. Aaron Wilson’s departure in March and said she was investigating the issue.
    — Noted that the Colorado Rural Health Center and the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Program recognized MMH as the third best hospital in Colorado for cost and quality of care, and for Medicare benefits.
    — Received an update from the hospital’s AirLife unit that utilization is still increasing and that they are modifying their flight path to reduce noise disruptions for neighbors.
    — Approved six new appointments for Ananthakrishna Chilukuri, M.D., and Daniel Possehn, D.O., to radiology; Michelle DeNault, M.D., Scott Gordon, M.D., and Yaima Alonso-Jeckell, M.D., to telepsychiatry; and Nathaniel Chappelle, M.D., to family medicine.
    — Approved nine reappointments for Ahmad Shihabi, M.D., Gary Rath, M.D., and Randall Marsh, M.D., to cardiology; Christian Burrell, M.D., and Jonathan Scott, M.D., to teleneurology; Eric Trefelner, M.D., and Keith Spellman, M.D., to radiology; Justin Newman, M.D., to orthopedics; and Lane Looka, FNP, to family medicine.
    — Approved two provisional ends for Dennis Jelden, M.D., to family medicine and Randall Smith, M.D., to ophthalmology; and two resignations from Amanda Fine, M.D., and Barbara Hager, M.D., in teleneurology.
    
   

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