Dr. Stinar lauds GRMC for offering continuing medical education

By Mary Alice Murphy

At the beginning of the Friday, Oct. 24, 2014, Gila Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees meeting, three long-time employees were recognized. Denise McNutt has just completed 30 years with Gila Regional; Rollane Collyge, 20 years; and Susan Medina, 15 years.

"They are part of a great team," Board Chairman Charles Kelly said. "We thank them for their hard work."

Chief Executive Officer Brian Cunningham said he would like to highlight two items in his report. "I would like to reiterate that in our Ebola preparedness, Gila Regional continues to monitor procedures daily through the Center for Disease Control to make sure we follow the most updated training. We are confident in our approach."

Item 2, which Cunningham highlighted, was the good news that brought everyone to their feet in applause.

"At the end of fiscal year 2013, as all of you know, Gila Regional was hemorrhaging fiscally to the tune of $9 million," Cunningham said. "There were a host of system and process issues, and the leadership had just resigned. A new team came together and began the turn-around. I want to make clear we understood what needed to happen.

"We set five points, which with a tremendous amount of work gave us the present results and outcomes," he continued. "It was no accident, but a direct result of the work of the Board of Trustees, the community, the commissioners and the caregivers. It's difficult to explain the daily work we did and do. Some continued to question whether we were really turning things around. We have had a level of confidence that things were going forward. We just completed the state audit of processes and financials and submitted it to the state auditor.

"Today, I received a letter from State Auditor Hector Balderas that confirms the audit," Cunningham said. "At the end of fiscal year 2014, we had a positive $1.2 million bottom line. That is a $10 million turn-around in 11 months, well, actually 10 months and 25 days.

"Our focus in 2014 was always on quality, so our quality scores also increased," Cunningham said. "We have great people doing incredible work and following the plan in a disciplined way. There is so much more to do, but I thank you for the opportunity to serve you and the community."

Everyone in the room, including the leadership team members, jumped to their feet and applauded one another and the accomplishments of those who have worked so hard to bring GRMC back to a positive bottom line.

No one had questions on Chief Nursing Officer Pat Sheyka's report in the packet.

Cunningham highlighted an item in Chief Operating Officer Dan Otero's report, in Otero's absence. "You may notice a new building near the helicopter pad. Tri-State, which has the right of first refusal to provide emergency flights out of the hospital, is putting in a modular facility as quarters for their personnel, so they can react more quickly."

Chief of Clinical Services Ray Goellner acknowledged Board member, Dr. Donald Stinar, who helped get accreditation for the Sleep Lab. "I was out of town last meeting, and I wanted to personally acknowledge him."

Board member Joe Ramirez asked about the program with a high school student that Goellner had initiated in the pharmacy. "She has come in twice and maybe will come a third time. It's working out well."

Ramirez explained that Goellner was giving the student, who is interested in pharmacy, some instruction and showing her how things work in the pharmacy.

Board member Jeremiah Garcia asked Goellner about LabCore. Goellner replied that the group is not interested in a contract at this time. "They needed the volume first. We are looking at putting in a phlebotomist, whose revenue would be in-house."

Garcia also asked about imaging. Goellner said he had received two quotes. "It would be about $130,000 to $140,000 on what we would want to purchase. The equipment has been down four months. For a barium enema, a person would have to go out of the area. We were doing maybe four to six tests a week, so it's not huge volume. It will take us about three months, probably after the first of the year to get it up and running. Yes, it is in the budget."

Chief Financial Officer Omaira Heakin gave highlights of her report. "At the end of September, we had a positive bottom line of $365,971, mainly because of outpatient surgeries. We are $660,000 ahead of last year and $643,000 ahead of our budget. These positive balances are driven mainly by outpatient surgeries and chemo. The bottom line at the end of first quarter fiscal year 2015 was $703,000. We had budgeted $60,000."

Garcia asked about payment for the linear accelerator. Beth Allred, GRMC controller, said the hospital had been requested to send in extra information. 'We complied with the first request, and are in the process of complying with the second request. Once they are satisfied, they tell us it will take a week to 10 days for us to receive the money."

Chief of Staff Dr. Victor Nwachuku said he wanted to update the delay in the physician electronic delivery system until MediTech 6 comes out.

Jed Rudd, IT specialist, said if customization for each physician were done with the present system, it would not carry over to the new version of MediTech 6. "This will give us time to work with the physicians to meet their needs."

Stinar asked about the residency program. Nwachuku said it is an evolving process. "I leave it to the residency program director Dr. Tressler. We have four residents—two second-year residents and two third-year residents. The first year of residency, they usually spend at the University of New Mexico."

Nwachuku said transcription early on had problems, but it is getting better. "It's a process." Garcia noted that transcription would help in the billing process.

Kelly said the Executive Committee had met to develop the agenda. "It is also time for the CEO annual evaluation. You will receive the packets, and they are due back November 10."

Garcia said the Quality Improvement Committee had not met this month, but was doing reorganization.

Pam Archibald, chairman of the Financial Committee, make several motions to approve contracts between caregivers and the hospital. The first was for surgical on-call services between Dr. Okay Odocha and Gila Regional. The second was a second amendment to a contract between Dr. Greg Koury and GRMC for comprehensive physician order entry. A third was a two-year contract with Dr. Michelle Pahl for ongoing professional practice evaluation. The third was for a physician office sublease agreement with Surgical Associates for Dr. Friedman, a surgeon, hired by the hospital. Several contracts for continuing medical education were approved—the first for fundamentals of critical care course by Dr. Mark Donnell; the second for fundamentals of critical care instruction by Dr. Nwachuku; the third for fundamentals of critical care support instruction with Dr. Tsering Sherpa; and three for continuing medical education between GRMC and Dr. Colicia Meyerowitz, Dr. Robert Seigel and Dr. James Tatum. The dates varied on some, as they were set from the date of first offering the service to the hospital. All were approved.

Stinar commented that the continuing medical education offered by Gila Regional to its caregivers was a "very quality thing to have. We were the first hospital in the state to have this. I want this brought out in the press."

The report from the Plant and Facility Committee presented "nothing exciting." Cunningham said the big focus for the hospital is the convergence next year of MediTech 6, Meaningful Use and ICD10. All have to do with IT and are expensive, Marketing Director Holley Hudgins told the Beat.

Garcia gave the Human Resource Committee report and said things seem to be stabilized. "We are working toward eliminating the traveling contractors." Archibald asked about a specific line item, and Cunningham said the funding was for recruiting fees.

The board members went into executive session, came out and did the usual appointments and reappointments of personnel.