By Mary Alice Murphy

After the Grant County Commission work session review of the regular meeting agenda to be considered Thursday, March 17, 2016 at 9 a.m., county elected officials and department heads gave county reports.

The first to report was Gila Regional Medical Center Chief Executive Office Brian Cunningham. "This is a report on finances for January, as we will approve February's at this month's meeting. For the two months of December and January, we have had low patient volumes and we have several big projects in progress. We are $1 million behind in revenue over expense. On the bright side, we have 135 days of cash, which equals $26 million to $27 million in the bank and no debt. We are confident we will move out of this financial situation."

"We are toward the end of the expensive upgrade to Meditech6 electronic records," Cunningham continued. "We have a big project on the revenue cycle. We did not outsource our business office, but insourced people to help us with the revenue cycle. Things are tight financially, but we will pull out over the next couple of months."

He said the hospital is doing a lot of work in recruiting. "Two physicians, anesthesiologist Mark Donnell, M.D., and ear, nose and throat specialist Twana Sparks, M.D., are retiring, and we have lost a couple of pediatricians. We have also had interviews with an additional urologist and a nephrologist, who owns land in the Mimbres and wants to relocate here."

"We want the commission to know that we are continuing our dialogue on a construction project for the labor and delivery suite, which is not adequate, and on the recovery area from surgery, which is also not sufficient," Cunningham said. "It would be an $8 million to $10 million project. Part of our long-term planning is to have a better OR suite to bring in more revenue. We will talk to the Commission on how to move forward. We are contemplating financing it within the organization. We have about $27 million and no debt. The cash is just sitting there, not earning much interest. How much do we need for a rainy day? Should a portion be sitting in the bank or should we be using it? The question is cash or financing."

He thanked County Manager Charlene Webb and team for working on the capital outlay for a nuclear imaging machine for the hospital. "The county had a significant amount of additional paperwork."

Commissioner Ron Hall asked about the loss of doctors, whether it was as usual or really retiring.

"Sparks and Donnell are straight up retirements, having been here for more than 20 years each," Cunningham said. "We are constantly turning over staff. Each week, we do an analysis on whether we need to replace or to put additional staffing somewhere else."

Commission Chairman Brett Kasten used the "rainy day" metaphor. "Every year, Santa Fe sends us stormsG