Specialty services give MMH an edge
“It makes me proud to see how we’re meeting the needs from that community survey,” said CEO Trampas Hutches, referencing the 2016 community needs survey.
The East Phillips County Hospital District Board dedicated a portion of its Tuesday, July 25, meeting to reflect on the reputation of Melissa Memorial Hospital and assess its strengths.
“We offer a lot of specific services to the community that aren’t necessarily traditional in a clinic or hospital setting, but they are becoming that now,” said board member Gary Rahe. He noted that while those with hospital stays at MMH receive great care, there simply is not a great deal of volume, whereas the variety of services in the family and specialty clinics is more of a pull, affecting public opinion.
Hutches said that lower hospital volume is an overall trend for area hospitals, including MMH, but MMH is attracting a greater percentage of the Phillips County market share than in the past.
In the last couple of months, Holyoke Family Eye Care has begun bringing in revenue for the hospital, with Dr. Tim Meyer seeing around 10 patients per day in the three days he is in each week. Hutches said they began the credentialing process for a new ophthalmologist July 25, and MMH could be performing in-house cataract surgeries as soon as November.
Holyoke EMS, revamped with the hiring of director Brady Ring last December, is already nearing last year’s total for number of uses at 135 through June 30. Last year, Holyoke EMS was used just 140 times total. Add in usage for transfers, and the EMS use numbers 178 year-to-date compared to 143 total in 2016.
For the once-per-month dental services at MMH, Hutches said they are very busy when they are there, and he wishes MMH could have the dentist available more often. MMH may look into hiring a dental hygienist to come in for work not requiring a dentist.
“People don’t have that trepidation any longer about the hospital,” said board member Angie Powell. “There’s no cringing. And there was a time when there was cringing.”
New Banner Health CEO to improve relationship with MMH
Hutches said at the July 25 meeting that service lines and specialty services could continue to improve with Sterling’s Banner Health hospital recently hiring Hoyt Skabelund as its new CEO.
Banner Health is an important partner for MMH, managing its server and email systems, providing several specialty clinic physicians and acting as a group purchasing organization for the hospital.
Hutches was enthusiastic about the new administrator, as was CFO Wes White, who has worked alongside Skabelund in the past.
“It’s a 180-degree change from the prior leadership over there,” said Hutches. “I’m glad to see that.”
Hutches described Skabelund as very innovative and rural-minded and said the new CEO understands that MMH doesn’t wish to be a competitor with Banner Health, but a partner.
Medicaid reimbursement issues may require government intervention
At the prompting of board member Sheila Gift, White addressed the ongoing Medicaid reimbursement issue at the Tuesday meeting.
Back in February, Colorado began running its Medicaid claims through a new contractor, using Hewlett-Packard as the vendor to change the method of Medicaid reimbursement. Hospitals across the state have been experiencing problems ever since. White said MMH currently lacks about $650,000 in unpaid Medicaid claims.
Hutches said MMH is fortunate to have a fairly small Medicaid population, as some critical access hospitals have percentages as high as 30-40 percent.
Additionally, claims to Medicare with Medicaid as a secondary payor are also failing to clear, getting stuck in the system.
“At this point, it’s real-ly out of our control,” said White, indicating that it will take a higher level of intervention to solve the problem. The Colorado Hospital Association is working on a presentation for media and legislators to address the problem.
Net income well above budget
Still, revenue was a bright spot in the July 25 meeting. Despite the trend of lower patient volume, June’s net income was 56 percent over budget, with the hospital outperforming the budget by 38 percent year-to-date.
Quality ratings are in
Hutches reported on MMH’s quality and satisfaction scorecard results at the July 25 meeting, which continue to be incredibly favorable. Overall satisfaction ratings for the month of June were reported at 90 percent in the emergency department, 100 percent in the clinic, 90 percent for outpatients and 100 percent for inpatients.
In the family practice, the “clinic days until the third next available appointment” (a standard metric for efficiency) was between six and seven days. While still not meeting MMH’s benchmark of three days, it still ranks above the 75th percentile nationwide. Average waiting room wait time was 7.13 minutes.
There were no medication errors, readmissions, pressure ulcers or adverse drug events in the quarter ending in June, and minimal documentation errors at 1.2 percent.
Other business
In other business at the July 25 meeting, the board:
—Welcomed Jennifer Cano as the new MMH quality director.
—Approved two reappointments, including James Yakel, D.P.M., in podiatry and Marshall Mallory, M.D., in radiology; one provisional end/regular appointment, Ranie Pendarvis, M.D., in radiology; and one resignation, Suzanne Homer, M.D., in radiology.
—Held an 18-minute executive session for two contract negotiations.